A New Dawn
by tweetypie987
Summary: HPSm. 3rd year. Serena Tuskino is best friends to the Three Musketeers. But, she has a secret that she has been hiding from them. Will her secret tear their friendship appart? Read to find out!
1. Default Chapter

Okay, here is another story. It's a HP/Sm one. I haven't done enough of those. The pairings are  
  
still undecided as of yet. Well, I don't know if there'll be any, considering this takes place  
  
during the third book, and The Three Muskateers are still very young. But, that's just me. I   
  
might make a pairing later on. We'll have to see. Anyway, on with the story.  
  
~*~*~*~*  
  
A New Dawn  
  
~*~  
  
Chapter One  
  
~*~  
  
"You know, mum, I don't know why you had to put all the messy ingrediants in this cake. All it's  
  
doing is making everything all messy." said Ilene's youngest child, Serena Tuskino.  
  
"You hush up," said Ilene measuring the right ammonut of water to go in the cake.  
  
"Hey squirt," said Serena's older brother, Josh, ruffling her hair. She scowled. The two things  
  
above which she hated the most that her brother did was call her 'squrt,' and ruffle her hair.  
  
He was two years older than Serena was. She was glad she had an older brother to watch out for  
  
her at school, considering everything that went on there between her and a certain Slytherin. And  
  
a certain Gryffindor student, now that she had come to think of it.  
  
Just then Serena's second oldest and last sibling walked into the room. She was one year older  
  
than Serena was and was a blond haired blue eyed beauty. "Hey mom, big bro, and lil' sis." she  
  
said, grabbing an apple off of the cluttered kitchen table and sitting on a bar stool that was   
  
next to the bar table and watching her mother and Serena make the cake.  
  
"Hey Mina," said Josh, eating a banana. He grinned as he looked at Serena. She had chocolate ALL  
  
over her face.   
  
Mina also grinned. She liked having a younger sister who would sacrifice her time and do things  
  
with Mina, like help her choose what she wanted to wear that day, or what she wanted to do.   
  
Serena loved helping her siblings out. She just loved having them, which, coming from a little  
  
sister, is very rare and unusual.  
  
Serena put the cake in the oven. As soon as she got it in there alright, an owl came flying  
  
twoards the window. Ilene opened it in a hurry. The owl flew in, dropped a big envolope on the  
  
floor then left.  
  
Ilene got the envolope off of the floor, opened it up and handed all the kids their Hogwarts letters.  
  
"I can't believe how grown up you guys are getting. It seems like only yesterday that you all were  
  
born." said Ilene, smiling at her three children.  
  
"Don't start getting gray hairs yet, mama. Josh hasn't even started dating yet." said Mina   
  
grinning. Josh smiled while shaking his head and looking down at his list.  
  
In Serena's opinon, she was really surprised that no girls threw themselfs on him. He was tall,  
  
had dark brown hair, tan skin, and light icy blue eyes. Had he not been Serena's brother,  
  
Serena would have thought he was cute. But, she knew too many things about him, and the fact  
  
that he was indeed her brother, stopped her.  
  
"Hey Serenity, why don't you go get cleaned up and dressed?" said Ilene, sending her daughter  
  
out of the room on purpose. She used Serena's full name, which made Serena scowl. She thought it  
  
was too formal.   
  
After Serena had gone, Ilene turned to the other two. "Looks like we're going to have to  
  
go to Diagon Ally pretty soon. We've got to get your school stuff, and," she lowered her voice,  
  
"your sister's birthday presents." she finished. Mina and Josh nodded, then went to go get dressed  
  
themselfs. Serena came back into the kitchen all clean. She was wearing Navy flares and a   
  
red 3/4 sleeve shirt with a black tank top under it, because the front went too low.  
  
"Hi, honey." said Ilene, cleaning up the eggs that they had used. Serena went and helped her  
  
mother clean, while insisting that she wasn't going to get dirty.  
  
"Hey, Rena, what would you think about going to Hotaru's today for a while?" asked Ilene, hoping  
  
the answer would be good. The thirteen year old looked a little disappointed, but said, "Sure."  
  
Ilene went to call Hotaru, but she wasn't there. She looked at her youngest and said with a grin,  
  
"Think you can handle being on your own for a while?" Serena nodded franticly. She loved being  
  
home alone. It gave her time to think about things.  
  
"Alright, but you've got to be good. And don't forget the cake, either." said Ilene, and she   
  
went and grabbed her cloak and Floo Powder. After the rest of her family left, Serena got the  
  
cake out, and went up in her mom's room and looked at what DVD's she wanted to watch. Just  
  
when she had decided on watching Freaky Friday, she heard the phone ring. She went to go get it.  
  
"Hello?" she said, picking it up. It was Hotaru. "Did one of you just try to call over here?"  
  
she sounded like she was in a bad mood.   
  
"Yeah, my mom did earlier to see if you were home so I could go over there. But, it's okay now  
  
because they left for Diagon Ally." said Serena, getting a piece of cake.   
  
"Oh, okay." was all Hotaru said. Serena frowned. Hotaru was never usually like that.  
  
"Hotaru, is there anything I can do for you?" asked Serena, looking at the phone with concern.  
  
Hotaru stayed quiet. "Why don't you come over here, and we can talk?" suggested Serena. She  
  
wanted to do something for her mother's friend (and her's, too.) that had done so much for them.  
  
"Okay. I'll be over in a minute. Are you sure, Serenity? You might get into trouble." said Hotaru.  
  
Serena sighed. "Yes, I'm sure, Hotaru. And another thing-"  
  
"Don't call you Serenity, I know. It's too formal." interrupted Hotaru, laughing.  
  
~*~  
  
Hotaru showed up an half an hour later, and had a piece of cake with Serena, while they watched  
  
Freaky Friday and talked about everything under the sun.  
  
Hotaru had gone to school with Serena's mother and had been one of her very best friends. Now,  
  
it seemed, Hotaru and Serena were best of friends, chatting about things and joking together  
  
and talking about future hopes and dreams.  
  
Hotaru talked about school in her time, and how Serena's mother, and Harry's mother, before she  
  
died, and her were all in a group together, and played tricks to rival those of the Marauder's.  
  
Serena loved hearing of the Marauder's. Her mother never talked about them enough, and nobody  
  
else knew anything about them, excpet the Professors at Hogwarts, and they were too busy to   
  
talk to a thirteen year old girl, anyway.  
  
Hotaru was married, and was only able to have one child. Her daughter's name was Kaitlyn. Her  
  
hubby's name was Andrew Anderson. They were a wonderfuly happy family, until now, that is.  
  
"And now, he want's a divorce." said Hotaru, and her eyes started watering.  
  
'The jerk! She's better off without him if he's doing everything Taru say's he's doing. And not  
  
to mention he's a controlling dummy.' thought Serena furiously, while comforting her life long  
  
friend. "It's going to be okay, Taru. I promise you it will. It will take time. Everything will  
  
turn out right in the end. It always does." she said, patting Hotaru's back.  
  
Hotaru smiled, and happened to look down at her wrist watch. Her eyes nearly bulged out of her  
  
head when she saw what time it was.  
  
"Rena, I've gotta go now! He'll be home from work any minute, and I still haven't gotten his  
  
dinner ready!" said Hotaru, jumping off of the couch.  
  
"Wait, Taru, take some cake with you. Maybe it'll cool him down a bit. Tell him you got it   
  
especially for him." said Serena, going into the kitchen and grabbing the rest of the cake.  
  
"Only, you'll need to make, um, more of it, so to speak. It's almost all gone." said Serena,  
  
sheepishly.   
  
Hotaru grinned, and said, "Put it on the counter, and I'll fix it." she said.   
  
Serena did as she was told, and put the cake on the counter. She watched in awe as Hotaru took  
  
out her wand, waved it, and there stood a delicious looking cake. It was bigger than it had been  
  
originally and had chocolate covered strawberries on top with a nice looking whipped chocolate  
  
frosting. And there was little chocolate chips spinkled all over it.  
  
After that, Hotaru said a hasty good bye, and left.  
  
~*~  
  
"Serena, we're back!" shouted Ilene. It was later than they had originally planned on. It was  
  
11:30 at night.  
  
"She's probaby asleep, mum." said Mina, depositing all of her shopping on the couter, which was  
  
sparkling clean.  
  
"Most likely," replied Ilene, going up to Serena's room and checking on her. She was sunggled  
  
in her bed with her favorite stuffed animal bunny and curled under the pink Tweety Bird   
  
comfortor. Ilene smiled at her youngest child.   
  
Ilene couldn't believe that she was going into her third year at Hogwarts already.  
  
"Good night, honey." whispered Ilene. Serena curled up more and smiled.  
  
Ilene backed out of the room, and closed the door.  
  
Little did either Serena or Ilene know, a big, shaggy dog with bright blue eyes was at the  
  
window looking in.  
  
~*~  
  
End of Chapter One. Alrighty, a new story. Should be fun, huh? And next Chapter will be the  
  
one where they all go to Hogwarts. So I hope you enjoyed this, and R&R if you wish. If not, I'm  
  
happy you're reading this. ;) 


	2. Hogwarts Here I Come!

Here is another Chapter. I hope you like it.  
  
And I've decided there will be pairings in this story, only their going to be a surprise. So,  
  
be patient. They will come up.   
  
~*~*~*~*  
  
A New Dawn  
  
~*~  
  
Chapter Two,  
  
Hogwarts Here I Come!  
  
~*~  
  
Mina's alarm went off at it's usual time when they got up to get ready for the return trip to  
  
Hogwarts.  
  
She stumbled into her sister's room and attempted to wake her up. Didn't work as well as she'd   
  
have liked, so she decided to get drastic.  
  
Mina went downstairs and got an ice cold glass of water. She then went back up to Serena's room  
  
and pulled the covers off of Serena. Then she dumped the glass of water all over her little sister.  
  
Serena jumped up and screamed. "MINA! What did you go and do that for?!" she yelled.  
  
"Because your so freaking hard to wake up, that's why." said Mina, agitated. She was usually that  
  
grouchy in the mornings.  
  
Mina left Serena's room and went to get her own stuff packed. Serena shook her head as she watched  
  
her sister go.  
  
Then she got dressed and started packing her stuff. She sat for a minute and looked through her  
  
letters from all of her friends at Hogwarts. She smiled. Most of the letters were from a certain  
  
red haired Weasley boy and a certain unruly black haired boy.  
  
Josh knocked on her door a little while later. He walked in to see her looking through her letters.  
  
"Did you get any from your boyfriends?" he asked jokingly.  
  
"Very funny, Josh." said Serena, grinning all the same. She enjoyed having an older brother  
  
who looked out for her.  
  
"Mom says she wants to go over a few rules with us. Something about not acting up at Hogwats,  
  
or something of that nature." said Josh, grinning.  
  
"Okay, I'll be right down." said Serena, and she started packing up all of her letters.  
  
After Serena had finished, she went downstairs to hear the 'rules' her mother had set up for   
  
them while they were away at school.  
  
Ilene had just finished lecturing Josh and Mina and they left to double check everything and  
  
make sure they had what they needed.  
  
Serena went over to the couch and sat down while Ilene lectured her.  
  
Ilene looked at Serena afectionately. She really was surprised at how well she was growing up.  
  
She opened her mouth to say something when the familiar call of "Honey, I'm home!" rang   
  
through the house.  
  
Ilene smiled. She was going to tell Serena something important, but didn't as her husband,  
  
Bryce, just came in the house. He worked at the Ministry of Magic. He was an Unspeakable.  
  
He went into the family room and gave his wife a kiss, then ruffled Serena's hair.   
  
Serena scowled and tried to push his hand away but he moved it and poked her in the side where  
  
she was extremely ticklish.  
  
Serena burst out laughing as he did it more. He had both of her hands held tight in one hand  
  
so she couldn't do anything and was tickling her more.  
  
"Mom," panted Serena who was red with laughing so hard, "help me, please!"  
  
Ilene smiled and shook her head. "Don't drag me into this." she said.  
  
A minute later Bryce let Serena go, which was a good thing as she couldn't breathe.  
  
"That wasn't fair, dad." said Serena, trying to catch her breath.  
  
"Nobody ever said I was fair, now did they?" said Bryce grinning. "Now go make sure you have  
  
everything you need for school. We don't want to be late for the train, now do we? Don't want  
  
another last year on our hands."  
  
Serena scowled again. "That wasn't their fault, daddy. It was Dobby the house-elfs fault. And  
  
it was the Whomping Willow's fault that they got caught." she said, going bright red.  
  
"Oh, right. I forgot. Your boyfriends were in that car. Sorry." said Bryce grinning.  
  
Serena went even more red and went to her room to double check things AGAIN.  
  
~*~  
  
Pretty soon they were on their way to Platform 9 3/4. They were making pretty good time and didn't  
  
have to use any magic to get there on time.  
  
Once they were on the platform they bid goodbye to their parents.  
  
It was easier for Josh and Mina because they were the oldest and were used to this kind of thing.  
  
After a hug from both they both got on the train and went to get compartments.  
  
Serena looked at her mother and father. She hated going because she missed them so much.  
  
"Well, honey, we'll see you over the Summer. AND holidays, right?" said Ilene, grinning.  
  
Serena had stayed at Hogwarts for the past two years for the holidays. She nodded, hugging her  
  
mother. "Yes, Mum, I'll come home for the holidays this year." she said.  
  
Then she went to hug her father. She had a special relationship with him. They always went and  
  
did things together.   
  
"Bye, daddy. I'll see you." said Serena, hugging her wonderful father.  
  
"Bye Squirt." said Bryce, grinning.  
  
"Dad, that's not my name." said Serena, scowling.  
  
"What is it then? Oh, wait, let me think... I just about had it...Was on the tip of my tounge."  
  
said Bryce, pretending to be thinking hard.  
  
"Dad!" said Serena, although she was laughing.  
  
"Okay, okay, bye Sere. Have a nice time at school." said Bryce giving her one more hug.  
  
Serena was about to get on tehe train when they called to her again. She turned around, one  
  
foot in the train, the other not.  
  
"And Sere, DON'T GET INTO TROUBLE." said Bryce and Ilene in unison. Serena rolled her eyes.  
  
They said that like it was a BAD thing.  
  
"I won't, I promise." said Serena, and she turned and got on the train.  
  
She walked down the corridor of the train, looking for a compartment that she could be in. She  
  
finally found one where Hermione, Ron and Harry were all sitting together.  
  
"Hi, guys!" said Serena, going in the compartment. She took a seat next to Ron. While she wasn't  
  
looking Ron grinned at Harry, who scowled. Hernione rolled her eyes.  
  
"Hey, Sere. How are you?" said Harry, smiling.  
  
Serena smiled. "Pretty good; how 'bout you guys?" she replied.  
  
Harry and Ron launched into stories about how their Summer went, and what had happened and all  
  
that good stuff.  
  
Hermione calmy explained about her vaction to Frace and everywhere around there. She said they  
  
had really interesting stuff there and explained to Serena that the history of witches there  
  
was amazing, although not nearly as exciting as in Egypt, where Ron had gone for his Summer  
  
vactaion.  
  
Serena was busy paying attention to everybody's stories, and telling some of her own. She had  
  
lots of fun just talking with the three again.  
  
"Who's that guy?" asked Serena, looking at the sleeping man in the corner. She had just bearly  
  
noticed him. "Teachers don't usually ride the train."   
  
"R.J. Lupin. It said so on his suitcase." replied Hermione.  
  
"Hmmm." said Serena as the train sped on it's way to Hogwarts.  
  
A while later the train slowed. Soon after that all the lights went out.  
  
"I wonder what's going on?" said Hermione, looking around to no avail.  
  
"I don't know. Is everybody okay?" said Harry.  
  
"I am," said Ron.  
  
Serena smiled. "I'm just peachy."  
  
Hermione let out an exhasperated sigh. "I'm fine too."  
  
Pretty soon Ginny and Neville came into the compartment. They both tripped over everybody and  
  
so fourth, trying to get their seats.  
  
They were all trying to get situated and were being quite noisy when a voice from the corner  
  
made them all jump. "Quiet."  
  
Serena looked back and there was that guy in the corner. He had what looked like a handful of  
  
blue flame.  
  
Then he went to check with the driver, as Hermione had done earlier.  
  
Shortly after he left, the compartment went icy cold, and Serena watched Harry fall out of his  
  
seat and start convulsing.  
  
Pretty soon she was pretty out of it, but at least she could say she hadn't fallen out of her  
  
seat. She was leaning against the window and her eyes slipped closed. An icy coldness filled her  
  
chest, making her think she was slipping in cold ice water and couldn't get out.  
  
But, instead of going into shock, as the others all had, she fell into an uneasy slumber. She  
  
was only out for a few minutes, however.   
  
She was dreaming of horrible things. Everything was dark and broken and shattered and seeping  
  
with sadness.   
  
Then a black enegyball came her way, and Serena suddenly jerked awake. She looked around. All the  
  
others were grouped around Harry, and didn't notice her in anyway.  
  
Serena reached up and felt her forehead. She realized that, as she was sleeping, cold sweat   
  
poured out of her. She quickly wiped it off.  
  
It was silent for a little while until everybody heard a snapping sound. Pretty soon the man  
  
was handing out chocolate.  
  
"Eat this; it'll help." he said, going around and handing out the chocolate.  
  
As soon as Serena got hers she ate it quickly. She could feel the affects of the chocolate   
  
spreading through her and smiled.  
  
"What was that thing?" she asked the man.  
  
"A dementor. One of the dementors from Azkaban." replied the man, looking at Serena and smiling  
  
lightly. "Evil creatures, dementors."  
  
"Obviously." she said.   
  
The man chuckled lightly.  
  
Pretty soon the train was up and running again. The rest of the trip was made in silence.  
  
~*~  
  
Alrighty then. Here is another Chapter. I hope you liked it. I know it was kinda blah, but the  
  
next ones will be better. And I've just noticed how many people do stories set in third year.  
  
I hope adding one isn't a problem, because that's my favorite book in the series. Anyway, R&R  
  
if you want; if not I'm glad you're reading the story! 


	3. Classes

I have just gotten some inspiration for this story. I went and saw the 3rd Harry Potter movie the day after it came out, and so I thought I would update this as fast as I could. Just a note,  
I won't be updating as much or as fast as I have been. I'll be pretty busy for a while.  
  
A New Dawn   
Chapter Two,  
Classes   
After dinner that night, Hermione, Ron, Harry and Serena trudged the long halls up to the Gryffindor common room. Serena was still thinking about what she had dreamt about when the dementor came into the train.  
It had been too blurry to see anything clearly. But she remembered the energy ball. It was pure black in color and very powerful.  
All the girls went into their room to sleep. Most of the girls fell asleep. But Serena lay awake in her bed thinking of the coming up classes and such and thinking what she was going to do that school year.  
She couldn't sleep, so she decided to go down to the common room and sit in front of the fire. She got out a piece of parchment and started writing a letter to her mother and father. When she went to get the parchment, she found a news paper, or rather, The Daily Prophet stuck in there. It had a picture of Sirius Black on the front with a warning and tid-bit about him.  
Serena wondered why that was in there. Then she found the scrapbook her mother and father had given her for her 11th birthday.  
Serena looked through it and smiled at the pictures and all the memories they brought back. There were some of the family vacation to Italy. Josh and Mina weren't too excited about the trip, but Serena was. She had wanted to go to Italy for a long time, and then they finally went. Then they went to Paris and saw the sights there. They had lots of fun and got really dark tans.  
Then there was one of just Serena and her Dad when they went to San Francisco. They were standing on the Golden Gate Bridge. That was the finest trip Serena had been on besides Italy.  
Serena turned the page. Ilene had added more pages to it this year. This one was of a couple Serena didn't know. But she had a good idea of who they were. The man had the same unruly black hair as a certain kid she knew, and the young lady had long red hair and vivid green eyes.  
'They must be Harry's parents.' thought Serena as she took the page out of the three ring binder it was in. She was going to give it to Harry in the morning.  
Then she looked on the one page after that and it was a picture of a wedding. Or, more precise,  
Lily and James's wedding. Serena smiled. She turned the page and saw more wedding pictures.  
Standing in the receiving line was Lily in the middle, then her friend Hotaru to the left of her and then Ilene. Serena looked at the grooms side and saw only three people. One of them looked suspiciously like the man they saw on the train. The one that was closet to James also had black hair, and bright blue eyes. The other was short, and had mousy brow hair. He resembled that of a mouse.  
Serena smiled as she looked at the pictures. She took all the ones out of Lily and James, and was going to give them to Harry in the morning.  
Serena climbed the stairs to the girls' dormitories. She sat on the windowsil that was by her bed and looked out the window for a while.  
All she saw was rain. She thought she saw something moving down in the trees, but didn't put any effort into finding out what it was. After all, it was probably Hermione's cat, Crookshanks.  
Serena decided that she really needed to go to sleep, otherwise she would be sorry if she fell asleep in classes the next day.  
  
"Good morning, everybody." said Hermione cheerily the next day.  
Serena smiled. "'Morning," she replied, getting her clothes out of her trunk and going to get changed.  
All the girls left for the Great Hall except for Hermione and Serena, who were taking the time they needed to get ready.  
"You said you spent your Summer in France?" Serena asked Hermione, who nodded.  
"It was beautiful there," she replied.  
Serena smiled. "Me and my family took a family trip to Paris one year. It was really fun. And I swear I gained five pouds with all the cresants and French bread I ate there."  
Hermione and Serena got to talking about their experiences in France. Some of them were quite the same and others were totally different.  
"Me and Mina were walking passed an ice cream parlor," said Serena, "And we saw these two people.  
Let's just say they weren't focusing on their ice cream." Hermione giggled. "I didn't encounter any thing like that before. That would be quite the sight."  
"Yeah, it was to Mina. After we passed she was laughing and I was trying to hide my red face. Mina won't ever let me live it down." replied Serena, grinning.  
The two girls hurried down to the Great Hall and started eating breakfast. Hermione was eating full throttle. Serena grinned. "You're going to make yourself sick, 'Mione." she stated.  
"Yeah, but you know my schedule. I've gotta go," replied Hermione getting up and hurrying out of the Great Hall.  
Serena grinned shaking her head. She resumed eating her breakfast.  
"Hey, squirt." came an annoyingly familiar voice.  
Serena turned and looked at him. "Oh, hi, I don't believe I know you. Can I help you with something?"  
she said sweetly.  
He scowled. "Very funny," he replied as he sat down next to her.  
Serena grinned. "What's your first class?" she asked.  
"DADA," replied Josh.  
Serena scowled. "That's not FAIR!" she said rather loudly, making all the passersby stare at her. She scowled them away. "I wanted DADA,"  
Josh simply smiled. "Well, tough luck, lil sis." he said, getting up and started heading for the exit.  
Then he turned around and went back to Serena. "Meet me and Mina tonight at midnight in the common room."  
She was a little confused about this, but agreed all the same. It had to have been something important.  
"What do you think it'll be like?" asked Serena to Harry and Ron as they were making their way up to North Tower and Divination. "I don't know. Probably just another class to snooze in," replied Ron, grinning.  
Harry rolled his eyes. "Yes, and snoozing has EVERYTHING to do with what Sere just asked. Honestly Ron." he said.  
Ron glared at him and was about to say something when Serena put in quickly, "What do YOU think it will be like,  
Harry?" "Honestly, I don't know." said Harry as Ron cracked up laughing.  
Serena smiled. "You guys are hopeless, you know that? I've heard a lot about it from Mina. She says it's just a bunch of rubbish." she said.  
"Well, Mina says a lot of things that aren't true, doesn't she?" asked Parvati Patil. "You should know, you live with her,"  
Serena rolled her eyes. "She's not a liar, if that's what you mean. Besides, she's my sister. Are sisters ALWAYS supposed to be honest with one another?"  
Lavender Brown chimed in. "Whenever possible they are,"  
"Oh, drop it you guys. Mina's my sister and that's all there is to it." said Serena. "I haven't had any reason not to trust her so I don't think I'll just suddenly change my mind. But thank you for your concern. I'm sure Mina will appreciate it." Lavender and Parvati hurried away up into the line that was waiting to get into Divination.  
"Wow! That was awesome!" said Ron. "If somebody came up and told me they thought one of my siblings was a liar, I would have-"  
"Let them have it?" asked Serena, laughing. She knew him way too well. Then she turned to Harry who was frowning.  
"Ah, Harry, I'm sorry if we made you upset," said Serena sincerly. "But we just like to make fun of our siblings.  
Nothing special."  
Harry shook his head, grinning. "Yeah, I'm sure that was REAL painful for you, sticking up for your sister and all,"  
Serena hit her hand to her head. "I set myself up for that one, didn't I?" ......................  
  
"Ouch," muttered Serena as she spilled some boiling water on her hand. There was a blister already starting. "Darn it,"  
She took her seat next to Ron and Harry at their table. Ron was reading Harry's tea leafs and from the sounds of it wasn't having very much luck.  
"Let me see it, Ron. Maybe it just needs a lady reading it," said Serena, taking the cup Ron handed her. She looked through her book and twisted the cup around just as Professor Trelawney explained to do.  
"Well, Harry, those things there look like vultures." said Serena, looking confused. "What would vultures be doing in your cup? Anyway... This here looks like a goat... And this HERE looks like a big giant dog." The three heard the breaking of a cup and looked up to see Professor Trelawney's shocked expression. "What did you say that looked like, dear?" she asked.  
"A big dog," replied Serena, confused. "What does it mean, Professor?"  
Professor Trelawney held her heart. "My dear, that's the Grim." she said.  
"The death omen sign?" asked Serena calmly. Then she looked at her cup. "What does mine say, Professor?" The shocked and nearly hysterical Professor took Serena's pink tea cup in her hands and read it. After finishing reading it she told the class. "Class dismissed,"  
Everybody got up to leave, including Serena, but Professor Trelawney stopped her. "No dear, stay. We need to discuss what was in your cup,"  
Serena sat patiently in her seat while all the other students left. "I'll catch up with you," said Serena to Harry and Ron.  
Professor Trelawney looked at the huge clock on the wall. "I only have five minutes to explain this to you, so listen carefully. In your cup was death...Not just the death omen sign...But the real thing. It also said of an adventure, the likes of which you've never seen before. It also said a lot about your friends, how you need to protect them... Do you understand, my dear?" Serena nodded. "Yes, Professor. I do," Trelawney nodded. "You may go,"  
Serena caught up with Harry and Ron and Hermione just in time for the next class, Transfiguration. The four kids took a seat in the back. The lesson was on Animagi, but Harry wasn't listening. His mind was on other things. The Grim, mainly. But then the other thing his mind was on was the escape of Sirius Black and how he was supposed to be after him.  
Serena looked over at Harry and noticed that he wasn't listening, so she smiled and took notes for him too. It was an interesting lesson. She especially liked it when Professor McGonagall turned into a cat. But when her mind wasn't on the lesson, it was on her cup. She wondered what her next adventure would be. She was thinking about what Trelawney had said. '...the likes of which you've never seen before'  
Whatever it would be, she was excited about it.  
Serena was sitting in her usual arm chair by the fire, waiting for Josh and Mina to come down. It was a quarter after 12am and she was starting to get drowsy. She wasn't used to staying up this late; her mother made her go to sleep by 10:00pm or 10:30pm.  
Finally they entered the common room, carrying a paper. They both looked a little wary, but other than that they were happy to see that Serena was still awake.  
Mina looked at Josh, then sat down next to Serena. "Hey, Sere," she said, smiling. "I heard what you said to that Patel girl when she was making fun of me. That was really classy."  
Serena just blushed. "Thanks,"  
"So, how did your classes go?" asked Josh, sitting down next to Mina. He smiled at his youngest sister.  
"Fine. I really liked McGonagall's lesson. It was on Animagi. It was excellent. And Divination was sort of fun, too, although Hermione didn't think so. She quit on the spot," replied Serena, smiling at the memory.  
"How was DADA?" she asked Josh, who grinned.  
"It was great. Professor Lupin is a good teacher," he replied.  
Serena looked between Mina and Josh. They kept looking at each other. She looked at them confused.  
Mina hesitantly pulled out a letter from her pocket and gave it to Serena. "Mom says your old enough to read this," she said. Josh and Mina watched as Serena read each line with careful concentration. They watched her expression change from confusion to anger. They're hearts broke as they watched her blue eyes filled with tears.  
Serena slowly folded the letter up and stuffed it back into the envelop. She felt sick. She didn't want to know what was in the letter now.  
"You guys knew, didn't you?" asked Serena in a hoarse voice. Her eyes brimming with hot tears. She looked at her brother and sister. "You knew all the time!" Mina looked down and nodded. "Yes," she replied quietly.  
Serena nodded and was going up to bed. She was shaking with anger. Her own family had kept this information from her! The people she was supposed to trust had lied to her all these years! "Sere," said Mina in a quiet voice. "Don't be too angry at all of us." Serena stopped in her tracks. "Don't be too mad at you? That's kind of hard right now because, at the moment, I don't want to be with either of you." She continued on her way up to the dormitories.  
Once she was in her bed she closed the hangings around her bed and threw the blanket over her head and started crying. Dealing with all this was not going to be easy on the young girl...maybe even impossible.  
  
Okay, end of chapter. Thought that looked like a good place to end, so there you have it. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.  
R&R or flame, if you want. Thanks for reading. 


	4. One Eventful Day

Alrighty then... What do you know? An update! Who'd have thought? Anyway, I hope ya like this Chapter. R&R, if you like. If

not, then just thanks for reading. On with the chapter! And, I'm sorry I can't answer anybody's questions. It'll give the

story away, and what fun would that be? So, now that I'm done rambling, on with the story!

A New Dawn

Chapter Four,  
One eventful day

Walking down to the Great Hall wasn't the happy cheerful experience that it once was. Everything felt different, somehow.

Empty, almost. It may sound melodramatic, but you try having something like that dropped on you and see how YOU feel.

Serena suddenly felt different from her fellow students; now she knew what it felt to be like in Harry's shoes, except that

her parent's hadn't died.

She sat and stared at her breakfast. It didn't look apitizing in the least. Not with her stomach all tied up in knots like it

was.

Hermione looked at her friend, worried. She hadn't seen her this depressed ever. And for Serena, being that depressed was an

all time low. Something must've gone on that had gotten her that way.

"Alright!" said Ron rather loudly, making passersby stare. He didn't care. "We have DADA today! Yes!"

Serena smiled. "You're certainly happy about that, Ron. Why is that, by the way?" she asked.

"Fred and George said that Professor Lupin was great. Ever since then I've wanted to go to his class. And now I get the

chance!" said Ron excitedly.

Serena just laughed. "I hope he's better than our other two DADA teachers."

Harry snorterd. "Just about anybody could be better than our other two DADA teachers," he replied.

"Too true." said Serena.

Hermione shook her head. "You guys are all hopeless, you know that?" she said.

"Thank you, Hermione." said Serena laughing.

Joking and visiting with her friends were just the things she needed to get cheered up. Only a little bit, though.

DADA was a great class, although Serena and Harry didn't get to do anything with the boggart.

Sighing, Serena was about to leave. "Miss Tuskino? May I have a word?" said Professor Lupin.

"Yeah," said Serena, waving the others on, telling them she would catch up to them in a minute. She turned to Lupin.

"I wanted to ask you if you would do a special favor for me," said Professor Lupin. "I want you to write a report on

boggarts and patronus's, and I want you to work on making a patronus." he said, shuffeling through his papers.

"Aren't patronus's supposed to be really hard, though?" asked Serena.

"Oh yes, way past Ordinary Wizarding Level, but I have no doubt that you can do it. I want the paper handed in in two weeks

and I want you working on your patronus." replied Professor Lupin.

Serena nodded. "Okay, Professor." she said.

Before she got to the door Professor Lupin called her back. "I forgot to give you this," he said, handing her a letter. "Do

not show this to anyone. Not even your friends, least of which Mr. Potter." he said.

Serena, looking slightly confused and not altogether reassured, nodded. "Okay, Professor." she replied, heading out of the

office.

Professor Lupin watched her go with a grave expression. "I don't think she'll like what it says." he said to a person in

his office.

"But she needs to know," replied that person.

Serena ran to her next class, Potions, giving Professor Snape a note. He read it with his usual sneer in place and told her

to take her seat.

Potions went without incident, other than Neville melting his SECOND cauldron that day, which Snape wasn't very happy about

and so he gave Neville a detention.

Serena and Ron and Harry made their way to lunch, happy to be out of Potions class. Serena usually liked it, but today it

was one of the last things on her mind. When that happened, she couldn't concentrate very much on anything.

The letter in her book bag was weighing heavily on her mind ever since she had gotten it. She had not yet had a chance to

read it, but wanted to very badly, although she had grown very weary of letters lately.

"Poor Neville," said Serena, sitting down to her lunch. "Snape really could've made his detention AFTER lunch."

Harry nodded. "I know. Evil-"

"Hi, guys." said Hermione, sitting down to eat her food. As usual, she wolfed it down as quickly as she could.

"Hermione," said Serena, "You're going to make yourself sick."

Hermione shrugged. "Then I guess I'll have to be sick." She looked around. "I'm going to be late." she finally muttered.

Serena looked at her friend with a raised eye brow. She looked at the boys who looked as equally confused.

They finished with their lunch and headed out to what was to be Hagrid's first lesson.

Harry and Ron were trying their best to make Serena laugh, trying to outdo one another with wit and sarcasm. When one had

the upper hand they would throw a death glare at the other, hopping that Serena would not see them.

"You guys are clowns, you know that?" said Serena, laughing and putting her arms in each of theirs.

They smiled, satisfied. Mission accomplished.

Only, Pansy Parkinson had something to say. "Why, Tuskino, I didn't know you were able to get a boyfriend, let alone two at

once." she sneered. "Boys would have to be crazy to be with yout."

Serena smiled pleasantly. "Still, Pansy, it's more than you've got, so I would quit bragging about yourself." she replied.

Pansy glared at Serena and was about to reply when Hagrid came walking up to the class.

"Follow me," he said, waving them all on.

They all reluctantly followed behind their new Care of Magical Creatures teacher.

Hagrid looked at Harry, Serena and Ron and smiled a little bit. The group turned a bright red color under Hagrid's gaze

and broke apart, embarassed at having been caught.

From the Slytherin group, Malfoy shot a glace at his class-mates. In his opionion it was a shame that such a pretty girl

could be put in GRYFFINDOR. She would have been better suited for Slytherin, he thought, continuing marching along with the

rest of his class mates.

After they had gotten to the paddock where Hagrid wanted them he told them to open their books.

Everybody looked around at each other, confused. How were they to open them? The idea had long left their minds when the

book tried to bite their arms off at the book store.

"How?" asked Malfoy quietly, rolling his eyes.

Hagrid looked around, looking for the source of the sound.

"How do we open the bloody things?" said Malfoy more loudly this time.

"Yer supposed ter stroke the spine," explained Hagrid as though it were the easiest thing in the world.

He went into the forest for a moment. As soon as he was done Malfoy had to open his big mouth, AGAIN.

"Gosh this place has gone to the dogs. Giving us a book that bites?"

Serena rolled her eyes and was about to say something but Hermione (who had just shown up) beat her to the punch.

"I thought they were funny," she said.

Malfoy sneered. "Oh, yes, clever, real WITTY, giving us a book that would eat us if it could."

Serena snapped. "If it weren't so clever, than how come the great Draco Malfoy couldn't figure out how to open it? I get

the impression that the book has more brains than you do, Malfoy." she said coldly.

Hermione, Harry and Ron and all the other Gryffindor's gaped at each other. Serena wasn't usually like that to ANYBODY,

even if that person was Malfoy.

Malfoy gave her a cold glare. "You have no right to insult me, you little (AN; Remember, I don't like swearing in my

stories. Sorry! It rhymes with witch, though. :)."

Harry and Ron jumped into action. "You take that back, Malfoy." said Harry, pulling out his wand, as did Ron.

"Put them away, guys. He's not worth it. Even if he was fungus on a shoe, he STILL wouldn't be worth it." said Serena,

glaring at Malfoy.

Harry and Ron weren't happy about being told not to curse Malfoy, but having been Serena that told them, they did as they

were told.

A second later Hagrid came back with some of the strangest looking creatures on the face of the planet.

"Now, who can tell me what these beauties are?" asked Hagrid looking around.

Instantly Hermione's hand went up. "They're Hippogriffs," she replied.

"Right you are, Hermione." said Hagrid, beaming at her. Then he turned to the class. "Now, I need two voulenteers."

As that was said the class backed up and Harry and Serena were left standing in front.

"Great!" said Hagrid beaming. "I thought it might be you two."

Harry and Serena looked at each other. Just like everybody to back out on them.

"Okay you two, here's what you need ter do." said Hagrid. "You need ter bow to them. Why don't you start out on Buckbeak?"

Serena nodded. "Okay," she said, taking a breath and walking up to the beast. She was about to bow to Buckbeak when Harry

walked up to her. "Allow me," he said.

Serena nodded. "Okay," she said.

Harry looked at Buckbeak and bowed. At first Buckbeak didn't bow. Serena was starting to get a little worried. She didn't

want a headless Harry.

"You might want to back up there, Harry." said Hagrid.

Then, all of a sudden Buckbeak bowed, keeping his large orange eyes on Harry's face.

"Oh, good. I reckon he might let you ride him now." said Hagrid, picking up Harry and put him on Buckbeak. Then he went

over to Serena, who looked startled.

"Fancy a ride?" asked Harry, grinning as Hagrid put Serena on behind him.

"I guess," replied Serena.

Hagrid slapped Buckbeak's behind and Serena had to grab Harry's waist if she didn't want to fall off.

As they left the forest floor they looked around them in amazement. It sure was pretty up in the air.

"Look!" yelled Serena, pointing in the direction of the lake. They could just see the giant squid lazing about, moving its

tentacles above the water.

"I wouldn't mind playing Quidditch on one of these!" yelled Harry as they flew above the Quidditch pitch.

Serena grinned. "I could just imagine Malfoy's face if he saw you playing on a Hippogriff!" she yelled.

They flew passed the Whomping Willow and grazed the lake on their way back.

They could see some fishes jumping here and there out of the water, looking brilliantly colorful in the midday sun.

All too soon the ride was over and Harry and Serena jumped off Buckbeak.

"Very good, you two! Very good!" said Hagrid, clapping them on the back.

Malfoy walked up to Buckbeak and did something to provoke the beast. The great beast reared back and sliced at Malfoy's

arm a little bit, throwing him on the ground.

"Hagrid, he needs to get to the hospital!" said Hermione.

Hagrid, who had been calming Buckbeak down, picked Malfoy up and said as he passed the class. "Class dismissed,"

"I think he deserved it," said Ron, walking up the halls. He had been in a fairly bad mood since the 'Hippogriff ride'.

"Ronald!" said Hermione. "However bad he is he didn't deserve it."

Harry was feeling a little bad for his friend. The two girls he liked didn't really like him that much.

Serena looked at Hermione and the way she was looking at Ron. Sighing, she said. "Ron, can I have a word?"

Hermione looked surprised. "I guess it is true what Pansy Parkinson said. I would never have imagined that what she said

about you would be true." she said, walking away.

"Hermione! Wait!" said Serena, running up to her. "I-"

Hermione swung around. "You have Harry, isn't that enough for you?" she said. "You're one of the most popular girls in

school, isn't that enough for you? What are you still doing with Ron and I? You don't need us."

Hermione ran away, leaving Serena feeling empty. A sneaking suspicion crept into her mind. "I'll see you guys later. I've

gotta do something." she said, running up to the Gryffindor common room.

Serena rushed up the girls dormitories. She ran into her room and, lying on her bed for everybody to see was the letter

that her brother and sister gave to her. Covering her mouth she muttered, "Hermione, why? Why did you read it?"

Mina came up to her from the common room. She looked at her little sister look on in horror at the letter lying on the bed.

"Hermione saw it," was all Serena could say before collapsing on her bed in deep sobs.

Mina sat on her bed and patted her little sister's back. "It'll be okay, Sere. Just give Hermione time. She'll accept it

later on."

"Do you promise?" asked Serena.

Mina nodded. "I promise, little sis. I promise."

Okay, end of Chapter. This was exciting to get out. I hope you all like this chapter. I loved writing this one. My favorite part writing was the Hippogriff part. I loved writing that part. A little Harry/Sere fluff. R&R, if you want. If not, I'm glad you've read this story! 


	5. Letters

Seren Lunar Echo; Thanks for the review! The fluff was my favorite to write! ;)

Starlit Warrior; Maybe this Chapter will help you understand what the mysterious letter(s) say. Maybe...:D

IMUniquelyStupid; hehe, I like you're name. ANYWAY, thanks for the review. I'm glad you liked the Harry/Sere fluff. There will most likely be more of it soon.

anya; That reminds me a little bit of Buffy... So, I'm glad you reviewed. Umm, I can't really say about if Sere's just gonna be with Harry, or Ron. I think it's fun to have a little triangle. But, staye tuned to find out! You'll find out about the whole Hermione thing in this chapter. And, Sere hasn't read the letter from Lupin yet.

HP FREAK and SM Fanatic: Yes, maybe in this next update you'll find out what the letter says. I'll have to see what way it goes. You will find out about Hermione later on in this Chapter, that I can assure you. Tut, tut, tut. I don't think you're a dumb blond. You reviewed my story didn't you? lol.

Flame Ivy Moon: Thanks for the review! I'm glad you've been reading this (and my other stories as well.) and reviewing it.

fallen-angel: You'll find out what the letter says in the next chapter or two. And there is a reason Hermione is jealous.  
Maybe her jealousness will have a bad affect on her friends... ;)

Now to answer the reviews from last Chapter. I'm kind of slow getting to them... lol!

Hn; I am sorry that I cannot answer your question right out. That was a really good idea, though. Hopefully your question will be answered in this Chapter. :D

NixiNox: I like that name! Ah, if only I could tell. But, rest assured (I like using that word. lol.) you will find out soon about it.

Lady Suga: Thanks for the review! And I will start updating faster! Just for you! lol!

fantasy-monkey: Nice name;) Thanks for the review

Ivy Tearen: Thanks for the review! I'm glad you like it!

Kitty Kat-chan: Yes, I LOVE the third book! It's my favorite because it introduces us to my favorite people of all time,  
Professor Lupin and Sirius. I really liked the movie, too.

SiLvErFaTeD; Cool way to do a name. Thanks for the review!

Silver Moonlight-81; Thanks for the review. I'm glad you're reading my stories. Thanks :D

Fire Dolphin: Thanks for the review. I know I'm not being very original, but I'm glad you think it's interesting!

Black Mage of Darkness; Hmmmm.... I wish I could answer your question. Maybe this Chapter will be your chapter!

A New Dawn,  
Chapter Five,  
Letters

Serena picked her head up. She was lying in her bed with the covers pulled up to her neck and the hangings closed around her. She wondered slightly if Mina had anything to do with that.

She layed her head back down. It was throbbing madly.

A minute later a ray of sunshine peaked through her velvet hangings. "Good morning, sunshine!" said the voice of her older sister. She walked in and once again closed the hangings. "How are you doing this morning?"

"On a scale from one to ten I would say twenty below zero." said Serena, holding her head.

Mina just sat there looking sympathetic. "What you need is a day out," she said suddenly. "I figured since it was the week end that we would go do something. Maybe go to Hogsmeade."

Serena smiled. "That's all fine and dandy, but I promised Harry that I wouldn't go to Hogsmeade until he could come with.  
His uncle didn't sign his permisson papers. I don't want him to be left out." she said.

Mina grinned. "It seems to me that Harry is turning out to be more than a friend to you, Sere." she said.

"Harry and I are just friends, Mina." said Serena, although the blush creeping onto her cheeks gave her away.

Mina frowned a bit. "I would advise you to pick between Harry and Ron, though. Keeping them both tied around your little finger may not be the best way. If you're not careful you could lose friends and get hurt."

Serena sighed. "I know. Maybe I'll tell them both later. I don't want to depress them, though."

"I assure you, Sere, that by telling them you'll be making them less depressed than if you carry on as you've been doing"  
said Mina, patting her sister's feet. "Now it's time to get up. You can't stay in bed all weekend long."

Serena nodded. "I'll come down in a little bit. I want to read through my letter one more time." she said.

Mina nodded and walked out from the hidden bed. She once again closed the hangings, only this time leaving a little bit open so Serena could have light to read.

Leaning over the side of her bed she reached into the cabinet by her bed. She pulled out the letter that her siblings had given her plus the letter that Professor Lupin had given her. She was relieved when she saw that no body had read it.

"How is she coping?" asked Josh from his seat in front of the fire. He was worried about his little sister. She had never been as quiet and sad than she had been for the passed few days.

Mina sighed. "Just like I had expected she would," she said. "I hate how this is tearing her up. And it's gonna get worse,  
too. Hermione read the letter."

Josh leaned back in his chair. "I only hope she won't tell anybody else,"

"I wish she wouldn't either. But the thing is, Sere has always been one of the most popular kids her age. She has always had Harry and Ron hanging around her. Hermione is jealous, which isn't a good thing." said Mina, looking around.

In the end Josh and her decided that if everything fell apart around their little sister, they were going to be there for her no matter what.

'Dear Ms. Tuskino,'

Serena read the first few words of the letter.

'After reading this, do not feel ashamed to be mad.'

She looked at it in confusion. Why would she feel ashamed to be mad? Shaking her head she continued reading.

'There are many things in here you most likely will not want to hear. For that I do not blame you.

Doubtless you have read the other letter that was given to you by your family. And you most likely felt a little betrayed by them.'

Serena looked surprised at the letter. How did this piece of paper know her feelings towards her family at the moment.

'I know what you have heard and your feelings on such a matter. It is almost unsettling, is it not? Anyway, to get to the important stuff.

I know how you feel about your friends; them being the most important things to you. I also know that you would do anything for them, especially Mr. Potter.

I know that your impulse to show your friends this letter must be strong, but I must ask you not to.

This year will be hard for you. There is no doubt about that. There will be things that happen this year that will mold you into what kind of person that you will likely become.

You do not have to face them alone, however.

I guess the whole intention of this letter is to explain some things to you.

It all started after I had graduated from Hogwarts. I hadn't planned on it happening since...well, anyway. Let's just say

I hadn't planned on it happening at all.

I met this wonderful lady one day. I guess it wasn't really met. I had seen her before, at school, but it only a little bit.

She was always with different people at different times.

She came over to me and said hello. Asked me how I was doing. Things sort of went from there.

Later on we were married. Then we decided after that it was time to have children. Nine months after THAT our first baby was born.

When that baby was only a year old something happened that changed the course of our lives forever.

Something that still haunts me even to this day.

After that disaster happened this lady and I divorced and she took our little baby with her. I was never to see this baby again.'

Serena's eyes widened as she realized something. She had promised to meet Harry that day by the lake!

Hurrying to put her letter away she ran to get dressed. She hurried and put her clothes on and socks and shoes. Then she ran down to the common room. "Did you guys just see Harry leave?" she asked her brother and sister.

They grinned and nodded. "He just went out that way," said Josh.

"Thank you," said Serena, running out to catch up with Harry.

She held onto her side because it was hurting. "Harry! Wait up!" she called out to him.

He turned around and smiled a little. "I thought you were gonna beat me to the lake." he said.

She skidded to a halt in front of him. "That was when I resolved to get up earlier. I had a change of mind as soon as my head hit the pillow last night." she replied.

Harry grinned. "Well then, let's get going." he said and they started walking towards the doors in the entrance hall.

"It sure is pretty out here," said Serena looking around at all the green trees and grass and leafs and flowers.

Harry nodded. "Nothing beats it," he said.

They went and sat by the lake, watching the Giant Squid laze about above the water for a little bit.

"Did you find out what made Hermione so upset yesterday?" asked Harry, looking at his friend. She seemed to have found it because she had a distant look on her face.

"Yes, I did actually." replied Serena. Then she turned to Harry in a most serious expression. "Harry, we'll always be friends, right? I mean, no matter what, right?"

Harry got a confused expression. "Yeah, why?" he asked.

"Because," said Serena. "I've just found out something that is different with my family and I was just wondering if you would still want to hang out and stuff if I... Oh, never mind. Forget I said anything and let's just enjoy today, okay?"

Still confused Harry nodded. "Okay," he said, looking out across the lake. If there was anything he knew it was that finding out something different about your family hurts... a little more than it should.

They sat there for a moment. Then Serena spoke up. "Where's Ron, Harry?" she asked.

Harry sighed. "He's with Hermione, trying to cheer her up. Apparently Hermione had to tell him something rather important."

Serena's eyes went wide and she had to swallow a gasp quickly. "I wonder what was so important," she said casually.

"I dunno," said Harry. "But I think it has something to do with what happened yesterday."

Serena smiled a little bit. Inside she was actually feeling a little more nervous than she should. "That will be good. Then maybe we'll know..." she broke off at the look on Harry's face. "What's wrong?"

"Something's bothering you," he said, looking at his friend for a moment. Something about her had indeed changed.

Serena looked at him for a moment then smiled. "Oh, nothing major. I just feel bad if I hurt Hermione's feelings. Another thing is I need to quit hanging around both you and Ron at the same time."

Harry looked at her in surprise. "Why?" he asked.

"Because I feel like I'm making Hermione jealous and I don't want that. Besides, what she said the other day was right. I do have you as my friend. And, whether we like it or not we're two of the most popular students in school." said Serena.

Harry sat digesting this before he replied. "People are intitled to more than just one friend, though, Sere. If you want to be friends with Ron I say you should."

"I'm glad you think so, Harry, but I'm going to be cutting my hang out time a little low. I need to start focusing on my homework." replied Serena.

Harry nodded then stood up. "I think we should take a walk." he said pulling Serena to her feet.

"Okay," she said, wondering wether this was going to be good or not.

As they were walking Harry started talking. "Hermione said something interesting about you," he said.

"I'm not a very interesting person, I promise." said Serena.

Harry shook his head. "You're family seems to be, though." he said.

Serena stopped dead in her tracks. "What?" she asked quietly.

"I said, 'You're family seems to be, though'." said Harry, looking anywhere but directly at her.

Serena looked down. "You think there is something fishy going on, don't you?" she asked.

He nodded, a little ashamed of how he felt at the moment but he HAD to know what was going on. What made Hermione so upset?

Serena looked at him and sighed. She remembered the words her sister told her on the subject of Ron and Harry. 'It's better that you tell them now rather than later.'

"Harry, I know you're going to hate me after this, but I have got to be honest with myself, also, as well as you. I owe you the truth about me. I didn't want to believe it. When they told me I felt betrayed; I felt anger; I felt shame. But most of all I felt hurt. The hurt that one day I would have to tell my best friend everything. That hurt has been haunting me for who knows how long. I would rather you hear it from me than from Hermione, anyway. Harry..." taking a deep breath. "I am the only daughter of..." voice breaking into little intakes of air. "...Sirius Black..."

Okay, end of Chapter. I thought you guys might like that. I wasn't planning on being predictable, but the way I have the plot drawn out it would have been impossible to do this any other way. Besides, I think Sirius would make a great dad, so there ya have it. ;) 


	6. A Friendship To Brave All Odds

A New Dawn,  
Chapter Six,  
A friendship to brave all odds

Harry stood, rooted to the spot. His whole system was thrown powerfully into a state of shock and he wasn't so sure he liked it.  
Then the anger started to kick in. He looked at her and noticed how nervous she was after she had said that, but the bigger part of him didn't care. He didn't care that she was hurting or what she felt. T he only thing that mattered was the fact that her father was responsible for his parents death.

"No wonder Hermione was so angry. She saw right through you!" snapped Harry. "Right through you and your pathetic scheme to get sympathy. Well guess what? I'm not sorry."

Serena looked down, determined not to cry in front of Harry. "I never expected that of you, Harry." she said quietly. "And, yes, Hermione has reason to be angry at me. You are one of her very best friends, why shouldn't she be mad? I'm sure you mean a lot to her."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Oh, quit trying to get me to feel sorry for you! You don't deserve it!" he snapped.

Her head snapped up. Forcing herself to remain calm, she said, rather forced, "I was trying to be nice, Harry. You and your friends mean a lot to me."

"Yeah, right! The only reason you're here is to help your father." said Harry, turning to walk away. "He wants to kill me, you know?"

Serena closed her eyes and swallowed. "I knew," she said. "But, just because he does doesn't mean I want to, Harry. I would NEVER even DREAM of hurting you or your friends."

Harry turned around quickly. "Well, you can stop calling us YOUR friends, because I don't think we'll be wanting a friend that has a murderer for a father." he snapped.

"Hold that against my father, not me! You don't see me going around killing everybody I see, do you?" said Serena, eyes filling with tears, no matter how hard she tried to hold them back. "Harry, your friendship has meant more to me than any-  
thing else has and-"

"Stop! Just stop. I don't want to hear this. Not from you." said Harry, turning around. Then he said very quietly. "Hermione hadn't said that. She just said that you were going to be a Sailor Scout, whatever that is. Whatever it was, I was happy that it happened to you and to no body else, because I knew that you could deal with something important. Now I'm not so sure."

Serena stood there feeling empty. "Well I'm glad you showed that faith in me, because I will need it." she said.

Harry was angry. He was only teasing Serena earlier. Now, whenever he saw his used to be friend, her memory would be tainted by the picture of her father killing his parents. Knowing deep down inside that it was not her fault, he felt a little saddened by the whole ordeal, but covered it up with anger. It was easier to be angry than it was to forgive right now.

"You know that I don't ever want to speak to you again, right?" said Harry quietly. In his heart he knew that wasn't true. But he was too busy feeling the emotion of everything to care.

Serena stood there and whispered painfully. "Yes," she said, the tears finally falling. "I just thought you should hear it from me before anybody else told you."

"Thank you," said Harry quietly, walking away down the corridor and to find Ron and Hermione.

"You're welcome, Harry." said Serena quietly as she watched Harry walk away. She went and walked back towards the lake, staring at it but not really seeing it at all.

"What, did you and your boyfriend break up?" asked the vindictive voice of Draco Malfoy.

Serena looked away. "It's none of your business, Malfoy. Now why don't you go insult somebody else because I'm not in the mood." she said quietly.

"I didn't mean to make you more upset," said Malfoy, sitting down next to her.

Serena smiled lightly at the lake. "Aren't you risking your reputation being with a Gryffindor and all?" she asked.

"I was just wondering if I could help," said Malfoy, standing up. "But if you're going to be rude about it then I'll go away."

"No," said Serena quickly. "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to make YOU upset."

Malfoy sat back down. "So, your the daughter of the infamous murder Sirius Black, eh?" he asked.

"Unfortunatly," said Serena quietly.

"And that's why Potter doesn't want to be your friend any more." said Malfoy. "Dang that Potter. You don't need him. You're better off without him."

Serena laughed lightly. "I guess, but it still hurts." She looked around and sighed. "I had better get going. Lots of homework."

Malfoy nodded. "Alright," he said, standing up.

"Thanks for the company," said Serena, smiling then walked away.

If he wasn't careful, that smile might be the end of him, thought Malfoy, walking back towards his group of Slytherins.

"Why were you talking to Malfoy?" demanded Mina.

They were in front of the common room fire at midnight and Mina was pacing around.

"Because he was the only one to talk to at that time. Harry doesn't ever want to talk to me again, and probably Hermione and Ron won't either." said Serena in a deflated tone. "The whole school probably won't want to talk to me either after they hear about this."

Josh watched his sister carefully. "Isn't it funny what a bit of jealousy can do? It can make or break somebody. At this stage in the game I would say it's breaking somebody." he said.

Mina nodded. "I always knew that mom was right when she said not to be jealous of somebody. How it could turn people against you and make them hate you and you hate them. It's a tricky things, jealousy." she said.

Serena nodded. "I just don't want to think about tomorrow. What kind of rude things will people say?" she said quietly, her eyes filling with cold tears.

Josh moved over to her and kneeled in front of her. "Listen to me," he said, looking up at her. "Whatever anybody says, don't you listen to them. You didn't ask for all of this, it's not your fault. Besides," he smiled at her. "You have us"  
Serena grinned. "Thank you, you guys."

The next few days were a blur to Serena. She never knew how fast word could travel around the school; now she did.  
What was worse was knowing that she was the topic of conversation amongst a bunch of people.

"All finished," said Serena glumly walking up to Professor Lupin's desk. She had, of course, finished with the essay later in the day when Lupin told her to have it done, but she wasn't in the mood to hand it in until the due date.  
Lupin glanced at her. "Very good," he replied, taking it. He smiled. It was worded very articulatly and very precise. "How long did you work on this?" "Oh, for about two hours." replied Serena. "It wasn't that hard, really"  
Lupin put it on his desk. "That was a very brave thing that you did, telling Harry about yourself. Not many youth show that kind of courage. It's always hard telling the truth, especially to those who mean the most to you." he said.  
"I don't see what difference it made," said Serena.  
"It made a whole bunch of difference, Serena. It suggests that you care more about your friend's welfare than your own. Very many good people I know do not posess that trait." replied Lupin. Then he smiled a little. "In telling Harry you gave yourself a sense of responsibility that not many thirteen years olds can even comprehend. Plus, you most likely gave Harry the feeling that you felt you could trust him."

Serena laughed bitterly. "A lot of good that did, didn't it? Now he's not even talking to me"  
"Have you tried patching things up between the two of you?" asked Lupin.  
Serena shook her head. "I thought it was pretty clear when he told me he never wanted to talk to me again." she said,  
but noticing the looking on Lupin's face hurried and added, "But, there is never any harm in trying, so full steam ahead,  
I say."

Serena walked up the stairs and noticed that the way to the Gryffindor common room was blocked. Wondering what happened,  
she looked around the group of people standing in front of her. She gasped silently as she noticed the Fat Lady's picture was slashed and the Fat Lady was missing.

Ginny Weasely was walking passed with the headmaster at her heels. "What happened?" asked Serena quietly to Ginny, who turned and gave her a dark look.  
"Everybody suspects Sirius Black," she replied coolly and continued up the stairs.  
Dumbledore threw a quick look at Serena. "Do not worry, Ms. Tuskino, we shall get to the bottom of this."

Serena nodded. "Alrighty," she said quietly.

After all the chaos had settled down a little, Dumbledore told the Gryffindors to follow him; they would have to stay somewhere else tonight.  
He led them to the Great Hall and made all the tables stand neatly against the walls and then waved his wand again and a bunch of fluffy purple sleeping bags appeared.

Before Serena could pick hers out, Professor Dumbledore asked. "Might I have a word?" he asked.  
She nodded. Being lectured was going to be better than staying in there and getting all the looks she would possibly get.

Dumbledore led her out of the Great Hall and the two walked in silence. It was awhile before either of them talked.

Serena was looking around at the portraits of previous inhabitants of Hogwarts. They were all snoozing silently in their frames.  
"Professor, I-" began Serena.  
"There is no need for apologies, Ms. Tuskino." said Dumbledore. "You did the right thing in telling young Mr. Potter."

Serena scowled. "I get that a lot," she replied. Then she turned to him. "You were headmaster here when he was here,  
weren't you? You knew him."

Dumbledore smiled. "Yes, I knew your father." he replied.

"Was he-" began Serena but was cut off by a rather unfriendly voice.

"Headmaster?" asked Professor Snape from behind them.

Dumbledore turned. "Severus," he said. "Did you find anything?"

Snape shook his head. "No, headmaster. It didn't seem Black was too anxious to linger." he replied.  
"I didn't expect that he would linger," said Dumbledore.

Snape's eyes flickered to Serena, but she didn't notice anything. She was too busy looking around at her surroundings.

Dumbledore gave a warning look to Snape, but didn't say anything.

In a minute they started walking again. Snape had left to go check with the other teachers to see if they had found any-  
thing new about their current situation.

"You said that you knew him," said Serena quietly. She didn't know why, exactly, but she wanted to find out everything she could about this man who was supposed to be her father.

Dumbledore looked at her, wondering how much to say. "Yes, I was headmaster here when he went to school here." he said,  
walking on while talking. "He was quite ambitious. Maybe too much so."

"Was he a good student?" asked Serena, looking at the paintings. They were headed back to the Great Hall.

Dumbledore chuckled. "Yes, he was." he replied, turning to look at her. "It is not always clear why things happen to us, Ms Tuskino. Indeed sometimes we wonder about it. But, something good comes out of every situation. You, being who you are, are sure to get something good out of this. Good night."

Sighing, Serena walked into the Great Hall and picked out a fluffy sleeping bag that was away from everybody, in the far corner of the room.

As she laid down she turned and faced the wall, tears filling her eyes as she thought about the day's events. To every-  
body she acted like she didn't care that they were being rude or harsh; she pretended that that didn't bother her any. But,  
now that she was alone, that hard exterior gave way to the scared thirteen year old girl that she was, and she didn't like that feeling very much.

"Hey, lil sis." said Mina, pulling up a sleeping bag. "How are you doing?"

"Bad," said Serena. "Have you seen the looks I've been getting?"

"Yes," said Mina, scowling. "And I'm getting quite sick of it."

"Nobody even came by to tell me to be quite because it was time to go to sleep. I think they think I'll sick my dad on them or something." said Serena, chuckling lightly.

"Don't worry, Sere. Everything will turn out good in the end." said Mina.

"I've been getting that a whole LOT!" said Serena, smiling a little. "I'm getting a little sick of it,"

Serena sighed. Then she heard feet walking towards her. Mina smiled as she saw who it was. "I'm going to go," she said,  
getting up.

Serena continued to lay down, facing that person's shoes. "I thought you said you never wanted to speak to me again," she said. She was sick of being nice to everybody, especially when all they were to her was rude.

There was a sigh. "I saw you talking to Malfoy today,"

"Yeah, so? Why does everybody freak out when they hear that? Sheesh, you're all sounding like my mother." said Serena, rolling over so she didn't have to hear any more.

"I just came over here to apologize. At least let me do that much,"

A moment went by and Serena finally rolled over and sat up. "Well, then, let's have it." she said stubbornly. She knew she shouldn't be like that when somebody was about to apologize, but she couldn't help it. What he said earlier hurt her deeply.

There was another sigh. "Today," he started. "After you told me that you were... you know... I was angry because I didn't want to realize that what you said was true; that YOU weren't the one that betrayed my parents; YOU weren't the one that killed all those people with one curse. But, being his daughter, I related all of that to you when I should have just been quite."

Serena sighed. "I don't blame you, Harry. Not in the least. If I had thought somebody had killed my parents and then I found out that they were my best friends parents, I wouldn't be so happy either." she said.

"So we're on speaking terms again, right?" asked Harry, somewhat relieved.

"Yes, we are on speaking terms again." said Serena, smiling.

"So... What did you talk to Malfoy about?" asked Harry.

"Harry!" said Serena, laughing and hitting him with her pillow. "It doesn't matter," she said, but she made a mental note to tell Malfoy how important it was that he listened and talked to her, however uncharactoristic for him to do so. She felt it somewhat nice that he risked his reputation to talk to somebody in pain, who had just lost one of her best friends.

After Harry had gone back over to Hermione and Ron, Serena threw a quick glance towards the Slytherins. Of course they were still up jabbering away. Probably about her. But, she didn't care so much about that any more.

She saw Malfoy look over her way and smiled at him. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all...

Okay, that seemed like a good place to stop. I hope ya'll liked this chapter. It took me FOREVER to write. So, R&R, if you want, if not, thanks for reading and I hope you liked! ;) 


	7. In The Dead of The Night

A New Dawn,  
Chapter Seven,  
In The Dead of the Night

There was the sound of many screams and the sound of breaking glass as the store windows were shattered open. The chaos surrounding the area was that of a riot, only much, much worse.

There was a whole in the middle of the road and all the poor Muggles that had gotten in the way.

There were two people standing in the middle of the road where it wasn't split. One had his wand out and was pointing it at the other. "How dare you,"

The other cut him off. "How, Sirius? Lily and James... How could you?"

With that being said an amazing event took place. The man was reduced to that of a pile of dust, or so everybody thought.

The man that was watching, the one known as Sirius swore under his breath and sighed, knowing what this meant.

A little later he was being thrown into a prison cell in one of the worst prison's every made.

Serena jerked awake, cold sweat covering her whole body. She sat up slightly, looking around. She was relieved to know that it was only a dream... But, it seemed so real.

Slightly confused, she looked around. She looked at her watch. 6:30am. Everybody she would want to talk to about this would be asleep... with the exception of one of two people.

Getting up silently, so as not to wake any of her sleeping comrades, she tip-toed over to the door of the Great Hall and opened it up. Creeping silently out, she closed it again. Since it was no longer night she couldn't get in trouble for walking around 'after hours'.

"But, mom," burst out Serena in frustration. She had asked for permission to use some floo powder to talk with her mother.  
"I don't think it was his fault! If they were really his best friends, which it sounds like they were, why would he have reason to betray them?"

"Serena," sighed Ilene. "There is no telling why this happened. All that matters is that you stay out of anything that has to do with him. Do you understand me?"

Serena was quiet for a moment. "Why?" she asked. "He's my father, why should I stay out of anything that has to do with him?  
If you didn't even care to tell me about him in the first place, why do you suddenly care if I'm involved with anything that personally relates to him?"

Ilene sighed once again, this time her breath coming out in an angry burst. "I didn't tell you about him to protect you!"

"Was it really protecting me? Or was it just a ploy?" asked Serena, rolling her eyes. Then a thought occurred to her. "Does the Ministry of Magic know he has a daughter?"

Ilene hesitated for a minute. "Well, no." she said after she had thought it over. Maybe this was the best time to come clean...

"Then what were you protecting me from! If they don't even know that I'm the only offspring of him, then I'm fine"  
burst out Serena.

"That's not what concerns me. What concerns me is, now that the whole school knows, the Ministry could easily find out about you. You should've just kept quiet." said Ilene icily. "Now we're going to have to find out what to do with you once the Ministry does find out."

"Did you actually think I was just going to let somebody else tell my best friend about me? Mom, be real. Harry has a right to know. If my father actually did betray Lily and James-"

"Which he did," broke in Ilene.

"IF he did actually betray Lily and James, Harry has the right to know. They were his parents." said Serena, as if Ilene hadn't said anything.

"You're way too much like him. He was good at getting into other people's affairs too," snapped Ilene.

"Mom, this IS my affair. This is MY father we're talking about for Pete's sake!" said Serena, then she remembered something.

Ilene sighed. "Look, honey, I have to go. Just promise me you won't get TOO far into this Sirius Black case. We don't want people to start suspecting something fishy is going on here."

Serena nodded. "Okay, mom. Love ya." she said, taking her head out of the fire. She needed to find Professor Lupin.

She waited out side of the class room for a total of five minutes. It was the weekend, but he was preparing his lesson for the week and he wanted it to be a surprise.

When he finally got out he smiled. "Now, what is it that you wanted to talk to me about?" he asked.

Serena got straight to the point. "Did you go to school with Sirius Black?" she asked.

He looked at her sharply. "What makes you ask that?" he asked.

"Oh, come ON, Professor. We both know you know that he's my dad. I just need to know one thing. Did he hang out with a person named Peter Pettigrew?" said Serena.

"I don't recall ever seeing him hang around Peter. Peter was very quiet. Just from what I've seen of Black, he was the complete opposite." replied Lupin. "Is there a reason?"

Serena shook her head. She was slightly confused. "No, no reason. I just wanted to know who some of his friends were."

"Ugh," muttered Serena, looking around in her chest. The book that her mother had given her, the picture book, was missing.  
Sighing heavily, she got into bed, she would worry about it later.

In the middle of the night, Serena was awoken by some commotion going on downstairs. A slight feeling of dismay shot up her stomach as she got out of bed. She was about to go down there when Hermione came rushing up. "You don't want to go down there," she said, pulling Serena back into the room.

Hermione pulled her onto her bed and closed the hangings around her, telling her to pretend to be asleep.

"Well?" came Professor McGonagall's stern voice.

"Asleep, Professor. She's a really sound sleeper." said Hermione. "I tried to crash things together to get her up, but she wouldn't budge. And boy does she snore."

Serena was trying not to laugh. Sensing somebody coming up, she threw herself onto the bed and pretended to be asleep. To prove Hermione's story, she started 'snoring' loudly. It was only when Professor McGonagall started shaking her that she 'woke up'.

"What's going on?" she asked sleepily. In reality she was still sleepy. And since she hadn't talked before her voice still had that crackly quality that helped her cause greatly.

"Sirius Black was in here; he had a knife." said Professor McGonagall. "Did you give him the passwords?"

Serena looked around in surprise. "No! Why would I do that?" she asked in dismay.

"Because he's you're father," said Parvati Patil.

Serena sighed impatiently, but Hermione beat her to the punch. "He's trying to kill her best friend. Besides, it's not her fault. She didn't get to choose who her father was."

Professor McGonagall went back down stairs. In a few minutes she came back up, along with the band of girls that had been so rude to Serena. "I think, Ms. Tuskino, we owe you an apology." said McGonagall.

It turned out that Neville had written down the passwords after he had forced them from Sir Cadogan, the dingy, loud,  
obnoxious replacement for the Fat Lady.

"Thanks," said Serena, sinking back onto her bed, relieved.

It took a while for everybody to start calming down again. After they did they all went back to sleep.

"Thanks, Hermione. You didn't have to do that." said Serena in the still night air.

"What are friends for? Besides, I figure you've been through a lot of trouble these past few weeks. No thanks to me," said Hermione, heaving a sigh.

"Ah, Hermione. You did what you thought you had to. I don't blame you. I would've done the same exact thing." replied Serena, happy to have her friend back. "But," she said grinning. "I guess I only have Harry to wrap around my finger."

Hermione laughed a little bit. "It seems to be working. You should have seen how tormented he was when he wasn't talking to you. It was pitiful." she said.

"I guess we're just two peas in an extremely weird pod," replied Serena, yawning. "I don't know about you, but I'm going back to sleep."

"Good night," said Hermione, rolling over and soon her snores were helping fill the room.

But, try as she might, Serena couldn't get back to sleep. Something kept bugging her; some lurking suspicion had settled in over her, creating a feeling of uneasiness in the pit of her stomach.

She shuddered. Something didn't feel right; something WASN'T right. Suddenly she sprang out of bed, opening the cupboard by her bed again. She knew that the book her mother had given her was missing, but...

She turned sharply as she sensed a movement in the corner of the room, the darkest place in the room.

Thinking quickly she pulled out her wand and muttered, "Lumos,"

The wand lit up and she pointed it to that corner. She just about gasped as she saw somebody there. What was even more surprising is that he was holding her scrap-book!

"Hello, Serena." said the person. Then he looked at the book. "You weren't by chance looking for this earlier, were you?"

She was about to say something when he cut in. "I thought I might have a looksie; so, I borrowed it. I hope you don't mind."

Serena's throat went dry. "H-how did you get in here?" she stuttered, suppressing another shudder.

"I dare say one of your class-mates is a tad forgetful. He helped me out." said the person with an impish grin.

Serena set her face, squaring her jaw. "Everybody here thought I let you in," she said. Then she jumped as one of the girls started stirring.

"Perhaps we should go someplace where we can talk without waking a bunch of teenage girls." said the person, shuddering at the last part. "That's the LAST thing I need,"

Serena raised an eyebrow. "That's the LAST thing YOU should be worried about." she replied.

"True," said the person wistfully.

"Why are you here and not in the boys dormitories?" said Serena and then she rolled her eyes. "Oh, wait. You tried that once. I'd say subtlety is not one of your strong points."

"As much as I just love to stand here and be insulted by my own daughter, there is more important things to be done, and said."

"Well," said Serena, lying back on her pillows looking at him. "What do you propose we do?"

He thought for a moment then grinned his impish grin again. "Well, as subtlety might not be my strong point, maybe you could think of something."

Serena thought for a moment. "Sure," she nodded. "Only if this is really important, though."

"It is," he said, nodding.

"If Harry never hated me before, he will now," she muttered, getting into her trunk. Her Sailor Scout stuff was there. She had seen it ealier with a little note. She pulled out a little pen like thing and, shaking her head, went downstairs into the common room, beckoning him to follow her.

"You, stay here. You're in enough trouble as it is." she said. Sighing, she held up then pen. "Disguise Power. Turn me into Harry Potter." In ten seconds there stood an exact replica of Harry. Serena shook her head. If Harry ever found out about this, he would hate her for the rest of her life.

"Nice," he said, smiling.

She suck up to the boys dormitories and quitely suck over to Harry's trunk. She pulled out the invisibility cloak and was about to sneak back downstairs with it when she heard stirring.

"Harry?" asked Ron's voice. Serena's eyes widened. "What are you doing up, Harry?"

Serena turned to him, thinking of a reason. "I'm getting...uh...some candy! I just got a sweet-tooth. Why don't you go back to sleep. You've had a hard night."

Ron nodded, laid back and was snoring loudly.

Sighing a breath of relief, she got up and went downstairs. Just as she had gotten down into the common room the magic of her pen went away.

She held up the ivisibility cloak. "So, Subtle Sam, should we go?" she asked, laughing at him.

They walked down to the common room and sat down. Serena threw the invisibility cloak over Sirius so that if anybody walked in they wouldn't notice him.

Serena started squirming a little bit. Her stomach was suddenly filled with butterflies that she couldn't seem to get out.

"It wasn't me," he said quietly. "Whatever anybody says, I didn't betray Lily and James. I would never do that. They were-"

"You're best friends. It would be like me betraying Harry, wouldn't it?" said Serena, quietly. She couldn't even imangine hurting Harry in any way, shape or form.

"How fitting," said Sirius thoughtfully. "that you and Harry should be best friends."

"Not everybody thinks so," replied Serena bitterly. "No, either they think that I'm trying to kill Harry myself, or trying to help others kill Harry. That's not so fitting."

"How does Harry feel about all this? Assuming you did tell him." said Sirius, knowingly. At this point he knew that she was very open with her best friend.

"Of course I told him!" burst out Serena, then she quieted down. "At first he never wanted to speak to or see me again. Then he caught me talking to Malfoy-"

"What!" asked Sirius, outraged.

Serena rolled her eyes. "THEN he caught me talking to Malfoy. I think he got jealous." she said.

"And you're what... thirteen?" said Sirius. "Far too young to have these boys chasing after you,"

Serena chuckled a bit. "They can't help chasing after a good one when they find it, now can they?" she said.

"You're mother probably has some problems with you," replied Sirius in mock exasperation.

Just then something flickered in the fireplace and Serena jumped when she saw the head of her mother floating in there.

"Mom! What are you doing in the fireplace?" asked Serena, folding her arms. It was now close to 4:00 in the morning and her mother wasn't supposed to be awake for another two hours.

"Just checking up on you," said Ilene. "I heard about the 'Sirius Black' break in and thought somebody might be in trouble."

Serena looked at her funnily. "Mom, that was four hours ago." she replied. Something wasn't quite right here, Serena though as she gazed at her mother.

"Oh," said Ilene, surprised. "I just got word of it."

Serena didn't believe that was true, but didn't push the subject. "We're all fine. All the boys, and girls, are fine. If Black was indeed in this place, the only thing he did was threaten a student."

Ilene nodded. "As long as all of you are okay... You said Harry was alright?" she said.

"Yep, he's alright." said Serena, raising an eye brow. "Why this sudden interest in Harry, mom? You've never cared for him before. He was never allowed in our house, remember?"

"Well, things change when kids become your own kids best friends, you get concerned. Besides, when you have a crazy murderer on the loose, your maternal instincts kick in and you get worried." replied Ilene.

"Ah," said Serena. "Anyway, mom, I'm sleepy. I just had to do a special assignment for Professor McGonagall on Animagus,  
and I've just finished. I'm going to bed."

"Okay," said Ilene, popping out of the fireplace.

As soon as she was gone Serena turned to the spot where Sirius was supposed to be sitting. "I'm not sure if I believe her.  
Something sounds too fishy there."

"I hear you," replied Sirius slowly. "You said Harry was never allowed in the house before now?"

Serena nodded. "Yeah," she said, slowly.

"Maybe she's..." said Sirius, but he got cut off as they head somebody coming. "I've gotta go," he said quickly, throwing off the invisibility cloak and running out the door.

Thought that was a good place to end right there. So, hope ya liked it. I've suddenly gotten lots of inspiration for this story, so I think the chapters will come out more steadily now. Maybe... One never knows. ANYWAY, R&R if you liked; if you didn't, I'm sorry. 


	8. Uh

A New Dawn,  
Chapter Eight,  
Uh...

Serena was so tired at breakfast the next day. She had stayed up all night the previous night stewing over the things which Sirius had told her. She was hardly even paying attention to her surroundings.

Harry threw a look at his friend. She was awfully preoccupied with something. Maybe something had happened to make her so.  
thoughtful today. He scooted up to her. "Is something wrong?"

Serena looked up, as though he had startled her. "No, nothing is wrong. I'm just thinking." she said, shrugging her shoulders.

Harry nodded. He could sense that she didn't really want to talk in front of Ron and Hermione about something.

"What are our classes today?" asked Serena, looking at Hermione's schedule. Her eyes widened slightly. "Dang, 'Mione, you're schedule is so full."

Hermione nodded. "That's the way I like it," she said.

Serena's eyes flickered toward the Slytherin table. It had been a few days since the whole thing at the lake happened, and she hadn't encountered Malfoy since, but occasionally she caught him glancing at her. Today was no different.

Then she turned to Harry. Harry was her best friend, and she was starting to develop a crush on him. It hadn't been like that before this whole thing with Sirius Black happened, but now she felt differently about things. She looked back at her food and blushed a little bit. She was starting to have a crush on not only two boys, but one Gryffindor and one Slytherin.

After Hermione left in a hurry, both boys looked at Serena. She was making shapes in her food, something that was rather unusual for her. Usually she would eat her food as fast as Hermione had been eating lately. Now she was making patterns in it.

"Are you feeling okay?" asked Ron, looking at Serena with a raised eye brow. True to her word, she had cut her hang out time with the boys short and had been a recluse, taking to the library lately.

"Yeah," said Serena, laughing. "I'm fine. You two can stop worrying."

Ron raised his eye brow higher. "You're being quiet. For you, that should be a crime."

Serena blushed more. "I don't talk THAT much, do I?" she asked, slightly surprised at all the attention she was getting,  
especially from all the boys. She had just caught Malfoy looking at her out of the corner of her eye and she wanted to crawl under the table and not come out until the year was over.

Harry and Ron looked at each other. "Not THAT much, no." said Harry, shaking his head.

Serena's eyes widened and she stood up quickly. "I've just remembered there is some homework that I need to finish. It's really important, too." she said, and left quite quickly after that, blushing like crazy.

Professor Dumbledore had caught the scene out of the corner of his eye and smiled a little bit while still in conversation with Professor McGonagall.

Serena was walking the halls, quickly, trying to get her mind off of her thoughts. After all, she had more important things to think about, like her father, for instance, and the way her mother had been acting lately. But, for some unknown reason,  
she couldn't get the picture of the ride that her and Harry had on the Hippogriff. She hit her head. She was being stupid.  
Harry liked somebody else, anyway. She mentally cringed.

She was so busy thinking, or trying NOT to think, she didn't realize where she was going and ran into somebody coming from the library with arms full of books.

"I'm so sorry!" said Serena, scrambling to pick the books up. "I wasn't watching where I was going."

"That was apparent," said the cold voice of her least favorite teacher.

Serena mentally shuddered. Of all the people she could run into it just HAD to be Snape. She had finished picking the books up and handed them to him. "I am sorry, Professor."

"Next time, watch where you're going. It is not a good practice to run into people, especially people who have stuff to do"  
snarled Snape. "So much like that father of yours. He was always busy paying attention to other things too. And look where he ended up."

As he strode passed Serena's eyes filled with hot tears. "My father isn't a bad person!" she said quietly.

"You keep trying to convince yourself of that, Ms. Black," said Snape, spitting out the last part with venom.

Serena watched Snape walk away with such loathing. If looks could kill, Snape would be six feet under and deteriorated.

Heaving a sigh, she started walking again. She had no idea where she was going to go, but she had to get away from everything for a while.

When she got to a window and looked out, she shuddered. The dementors were hovering about outside, threatening anybody who came outside. She felt a chill climb up her spine. Her dad was out there somewhere, and with those dementors hovering around like that, she knew he was probably having a hard time trying to hide.

Shaking her head, emptying her head of any thoughts, she went into the library and started studying for Professor Flitwick's Charms essay. It was really easy, just the usual definition of what the charm was, what it did, why it was important.

But, try as she might, the young blond couldn't think on her homework at that moment. She was busy thinking of other things,  
as equally important, if not more important than the piece of parchment that wasn't even halfway filled sitting before her.

The day was getting steadily darker and Serena's eyes were getting heavier and heavier. She decided that the library wasn't the best place to go to sleep at, so she picked up her books, parchment, ink bottle and quill and stuffed them all into her bag and made her way up to Gryffindor Tower.

As she was walking her mind drifted back to that day in Trelawney's class room. Nothing exciting had happened since then, but she still wondered about what was said. What adventure was she going to have? Was it going to be scarey, fun, boring? All things she would have liked to know.

As she rounded the corner she ran SMACK! into somebody coming around the corner at the same time. She fell hard on her back side and scowled. She brightened as she looked across from her and saw that it was, to her relief, Harry that she ran into.

"Hi," she said brightly, getting up and handing him her hand to help him up.

"Hi," replied Harry. "Where have you been? I've been looking all over for you."

Serena blushed. "I've been studying," she said. Then she got serious. "I've told you, Harry, I'm cutting down on my hang out time until my grades pick up. They've been slipping a little bit, and if my mother found out, I'd be in some major trouble."

"I'm lucky; I don't have that problem. The Dursley's could care less about what grades I made, so long as I didn't get kicked out of school and be placed there for the rest of my life." replied Harry grinning.

They both started walking towards Gryffindor Tower together. "What were you doing out there, anyway?" asked Serena, turning to look at him. His black hair was unruly as ever and his vivid green eyes were bright in the dimming sunlight.

"I just fancied a walk," said Harry, putting his hands in his pockets and blushing slightly.

Serena smiled. "Oh, please Harry. You were totally trying to find me." she said.

He blushed a little bit. "No, if I'd have wanted to find you I would have a long time ago. I would've just looked for the blond who was running into everybody," he retorted.

Serena glared mockingly. "Hey, I've only run into you and Snape today, so I'm doing better." she said.

The two decided not to go to Gryffindor Tower, but to go outside by the lake. It was still pretty light out, and some students could be seen walking about here and there.

"It's so pretty out here," said Serena, looking around. "I don't think I've ever seen grass this green."

"I don't think any Muggle has ever seen grass this green either," replied Harry, nodding.

Serena grinned. "No, I don't suppose so." she replied.

They went to sit under the tree by the lake and watched the Giant Squid's tentacle lazing about above the water, waving with the current.

"So, what is it that you were so preoccupied with earlier?" asked Harry, breaking the silent, peaceful mood.

Serena sighed and then chuckled. "I knew you would ask that," she said. Then she turned to him, her eyes bright. "Harry, I don't think it was Sirius Black who betrayed your parents."

Harry stiffened. He had purposefully been avoiding this subject. He had just accepted that Serena was his daughter, but as far as anything else went, Black was still a very bad person. "Why do you say that?" he asked.

Serena sighed again. "What if I told you that after he had supposedly 'attacked' Ron, he didn't leave the Tower? What if I told you that he stayed and talk to me about things? Would that upset you too bad?"

"Yes," replied Harry quietly. "I know that he betrayed my parents, Sere. There was no other person that close to them that could have done it."

Serena looked at him, the sparkle in her eyes totally gone now. "I knew we couldn't agree on this. Harry-"

"Why are you trying to make excuses for him?" butt in Harry quickly. "He's a murderer."

"Why don't you ever try to understand me?" asked Serena just as quick.

"I do try to-" began Harry, but Serena cut him short.

"Malfoy does," she said too quickly. She mentally kicked herself. She was trying to keep her crush on him secret, but if stuff like that burst out of her like that, then she couldn't very well do that.

"What?" asked Harry, narrowing his eyes. "You've talked to Malfoy about this?"

Serena softened a little bit, but she was still angry at Harry. "Yes, I did talk to Malfoy about this." she replied slowly.  
"But that was when you weren't talking to me and I was so upset."

Harry looked at the ground. "You talked to Malfoy about this?" he repeated. Then, "It wasn't even HIS problem!"

"So? He seems to understand me a lot better than you do!" spat Serena hotly. "Besides... Oh, wait. You wouldn't understand.  
You're too close-minded to-"

Just then something ugly jumped out at them from behind the tree. It was tall and pale white with purple hair and ugly beady black eyes. It reached out and slashed at the two, cutting into Harry's shoulder and Serena's side.

"Ouch! That really hurt you dummy!" said Serena, standing up. It was one of those things that her letter about her being a 'Sailor Scout' mentioned. She didn't know they would be coming this soon, though.

"What is that thing?" asked Harry, looking at it while holding his cut shoulder.

Serena looked around and noticed all of the students that had been out were out cold on the ground. "I don't know, but I know one thing. We need to get rid of it!" she said.

The thing slashed again, but this time they both jumped out of the way. Serena pulled Harry behind the tree and told him to stay put.

She searched her pockets while the creature thing was looking for them. "Aha!" said Serena triumphantly, pulling out a round golden locket with a moon and a pink dot above it. "Moon Prism Power!" she said quietly. As soon as she had pulled Harry behind the tree she had jumped into some nearby shrubs to transform.

As soon as the lights to the transformation died down, she jumped out of the shurb. "Hey, you evil piece of slime! You get out of here or..." said Serena, thinking of something to say. "Or I kill you, how does that sound?"

The thing merely laughed at the young Sailor, and charged at her. But, somehow, knowing it was going to attack, Sailor Moon jumped out of the way of the attack and the creature had to stop quickly if it wanted to stay dry.

Sailor Moon was at a loss for what to do. She didn't know any of her attacks just yet, and so she just had to dodge it for a while.

Little did Sailor Moon and Harry know that, off in the Forbidden Forest, they were being watched.

"This isn't looking so good, Luna." said the man sitting next to a purple colored cat with a yellow crescent moon on her forehead.

"I know that, Sirius." replied the cat, wagging her tail in frustration. "I wish she'd practiced like the letter told her to."

"She hasn't had time," replied Sirius. "With all the homework she's been getting, she has hardly any time to do anything."

Luna digested this for a moment. "You're right, of course. I'll have to go tell her."

By this time the creature had taken Harry's energy and he was laying flat on the cold grass, out cold.

"You'll pay for that, you idiot!" said Sailor Moon, jumping out of the way of another slash. At this point she had several cuts on her; one on her side, which was the first one she'd gotten; one on her leg where she had tripped and fallen on a log; there was also a bruise on her shin where she had fallen on the log; two cuts across her shoulder from where she rolled away a little too late; and one on her cheek and above her eye brow.

Luna was behind the tree now. "Sailor Moon!" she called out.

She looked around, slightly confused. Then she saw the cat and dashed across to the tree while the creature thing was still disoriented from her attack.

"I didn't know cats could talk!" she said, shaking her head.

"There isn't time for rude jabs right now; you'll have all year to do that. Right now you need to pull off your tiara and say these words- 'Moon Tiara Magic'. Do you understand?" said the cat.

Sailor Moon nodded. "I think so," she replied, jumping out from behind the tree. Then she turned to the monster. "Moon Tiara Magic!" she shouted, taking her tiara off and throwing it at the creature. It screamed then turned to dust.

Sirius nodded from the forest floor. "She won't be too bad then," he said to a white cat sitting next to him. "And with the other Sailors on their way, she'll be just fine."

The cat nodded. "She will. I have no doubt about that."

As soon as the monster had gone, Sailor Moon de-transformed back into herself. She went over to where Harry was just waking up.

"What happened?" asked Harry, sitting up and holding his head. "I just remember this crazy thing jumping out at us and a blond in a weird outfit fighting it."

Serena was slightly confused. "Uh... Don't you remember anything before that, Harry?" she asked.

"About what?" asked Harry, looking at her, more confused than she was.

"About who that blond in the weird outfit was?" asked Serena, cocking an eye brow.

Harry shook his head. "I have no clue, but it's a good thing she came along, otherwise we would be in major trouble." he said.

Serena nodded, then looked around. "We had better get back to the castle, Harry. The hospital wing sounds good right now."

Okay, that sounded like a good place to end that chapter. I hope ya'll liked this one. It was fun to write. Sorry for the delay in getting it out, too. I've had a little bit of writers block. But, anyway, R&R if you liked. If not, I'm sorry. ;( 


	9. Annoying Cats, Annoying Teachers What co...

You just never know how addicting computer games are until you've tried them... I'm totally addicted to the Sims 2: University... Man, I love The Sims. Unfortunately, my Sim is married to a Romance Sim. For all of those who've played The Sims, you know what a pain in the butt that is. :D And another thing, you know you're obsessed when you make Harry's family of Sims... :D And I'm on to make Sirius and Remus! Muhahaha!

A New Dawn,  
Chapter Nine,  
Annoying Cats, Annoying Teachers.  
What could be worse?

Serena was still reeling over what had happened a week ago. She truly was not expecting the attacks to come so soon. There hadn't been another one since, but nonetheless she decided it would be a good idea if she started monitoring the situation carefully.

It was on that premise that she was walking the halls to Professor Dumbledore's office. She had mustered up the courage to go and ask the headmaster for permission to be out after hours on account of the attacks.

As she stood in front of the stone gargoyle trying to figure out what she was going to say, she felt a sudden presence. She turned quickly, but didn't see anybody. Suddenly remembering about the cat she looked down and, sure enough, there was a little purple cat with the moon on it's forehead.

"Why, hello there." said Serena, bending down and scratching it behind it's ears.

The cat purred and then stopped, suddenly scowling at herself. "Serena," she said seriously. "I know your current situation with the attacks going on here at school."

Serena nodded. "That's right. You're the one that helped me with my tiara thing. That helped a whole bunch." she said.

"My name is Luna and I've come here to help you," said the cat. "Obviously you haven't been training your abilities any."

Serena looked at the cat with a raised eye brow. "Hey, I've been neck high in homework for the passed few weeks here. The teachers are relentless. Besides, if I didn't know how to use that thing then, I probably wouldn't have been able to use it as I was training either."

Luna looked around. "School is important, but I would think that you would take your duty as lead Sailor Scout more seriously, especially after what happened to your friend." she said.

"To my understanding these attacks weren't supposed to happen until I turned fourteen. Start explaining that, would you?" said Serena, glaring at the cat. "Besides, I have been taking my duty as lead Sailor Scout seriously. Why do you think I'm standing in front of the headmaster's office!"

"That's all very well, but it would help if you didn't get very deep in your homework. Then we could train you." said Luna.

Serena raised both eye brows. "Okay, first you expect me to risk my life to save people, which I'm fine with, and now you want to get me kicked out of school, too?" she said.

"I would think you would take your calling more seriously. School is always going to be here, the people aren't." said Luna.

Serena narrowed her eyes. "Do you know who runs this school, Luna? These students are under the best headmaster ever, Professor Dumbledore and so by you saying that the people wouldn't be here, Dumbledore wouldn't anything happen to these students!" she said, waving her arms about.

"Even so, I think it would be good if you told him your current position." said Luna.

Serena let out an exasperated sigh. "What do you think I was going to do, invite him to a tea party!" she said.

"One needs to hold ones tounge," said Luna.

'Oh, great. This year is going to be the best one of my life, I can already tell.' thought Serena, straightening up.

"Well, there is only one way to tell him anything, and that is leaving me so I can get to it." said Serena.

Luna glared, but went her own way. 'Oh, boy. A slacker type. I hope none of the other girls are like that one.' she thought as she pranced away.

Serena stood tall and told the password to the gargoyle and was soon up the spiral stairs to Dumbledore's office.

She knocked on the door and waited only for a moment before the old wizard was there, smiling kidly down at her.

"Why, Ms. Tuskino," he said. "What can I do for you?"

Serena took a breath. "Professor, I need to talk to you about something very important." she said as Dumbledore ushered her in. "Professor, I know you've been noticing all these attacks going on lately. I was wondering if I could have permission to patrol at night, because it is my duty as lead Sailor Scout to make sure nothing harmful happens to these students." she said. "And I would like you to start calling me by my father's name, as everybody else does."

He smiled. "And just how does your mother feel about this change?" he asked.

"Well, I haven't actually told her yet." she said sheepishly. "I've been meaning to, but she would just freak out and I don't want that to happen."

"Have a seat," said Dumbledore, gesturing towards a chair in front of his desk. "I think you have more on your mind than just that."

Serena nodded and took the chair. Inhailing a deep breath she let it out slowly. "I haven't talked to anybody but Harry about this. Professor, I don't think it was my dad who betrayed Lily and James. I think it was somebody else." she said.

"I see," said Dumbledore, looking at her with searching eyes. "And what would make you come to such a conclusion?"

Serena looked down. "I'm sure you heard about that night in the Gryffindor Tower," she said.

He merely nodded and signaled for her to continue with her story.

"Well," she said looking up into his kind, wise blue eyes. "My dad stayed to talk to me after all the commotion had died down and what he said made sense... He was sad, Professor," she said quietly, eyes filling with tears. "When he talked about Lily and James, he was sad."

Dumbledore sat and considered this for a minute. Then he smiled a little. "Well, of course you have permission, but if you don't get to class Professor Snape might be a little angry." he said.

Serena's eyes widened and she hurried to the door. "Thank you, Professor."

She skidded to a hault in front of Professor Snape's office and took a deep breath before going in the class-room.

"Class started twenty minutes ago, Ms. Tuskino," came Snape's cold voice from out of the dim light of the dungeon.

Serena started. "I have a note from Professor Dumbledore," she said, handing Snape the note.

He sneered at her, while telling her to go take her seat, while adding that, had it not been for the headmaster, she would have detention for the next month and a half.

"Moon Tiara Magic!" yelled Serena, dodging an attack from one of the monsters. Sure enough there had been an attack that same night.

"Well, that was most interesting." said Luna, jumping out of the bushes. "Although it could have been quicker."

Serena narrowed her eyes. "Unless your here to encourage me to become better, I suggest you go away."

"You have no right to send me away," replied Luna nastily.

Serena picked up her bag and detransformed. "Well, Luna, I've got a detention to serve, so I've gotta get going now." she said and started walking up the steps to go to Snape's dungeon.

He had found some way for her to have serve a detention. So, when she was doing her potion that day, Snape had watched her like an eagle to make sure he found something wrong with it. Sure enough, she put too much of one thing and not enough of the other.

"You do know why you're here, do you not?" sneered Snape from his desk as he watched the young girl clean out the cauldrons.

Serena had to try hard not to roll her eyes. "I have an idea why, Professor, but I'm not exactly sure." she replied in even tones, but inside she wanted to slam Snape upside the head with the cauldron she was cleaning out.

"How is it, that during class, Longbottom's potion came out better than yours?" snapped Snape.

Serena tried to look innocent. "Maybe he's just getting the hang of potion making, Professor. He has been studying quite steadily about it. Maybe now he's just reaping the benefits."

"Don't lie to me, Ms... Black," he let that name hang in the air for a minute, making Serena cringe. The way he said it made it sound like it was the nastiest of curse words. "I know you've been helping Longbottom. You and Miss Granger seem to have a thing for that. And, need I remind you that I require all of my students to do their OWN work?"

Serena was just happy that she didn't have to clean up any messes that Neville had made, because, according to Snape, his potion came out better than hers. "No, sir, you needn't remind me."

"Good," he sneered again. "Because if it happens again I'll take away fifty points from Gryffindor and I'll report you to not only the headmaster, but your head of hose as well."

It was a good thing that she had just finished the cauldrons at that moment, or she might have been tempted to say some very sore words at the professor standing before her.

"Am I free to go, Professor," said Serena. "because I've got lots of homework that I need to get done."

Snape had to survey every cauldron to make sure every bit of it was clean enough to eat off of. When he couldn't find anything wrong with them, he took five points away from Gryffindor and accused Serena of using magic to clean them out, which was impossible, as Serena had left her wand upstairs. Then he sent her away.

Serena hurried away. As soon as she was far away from Snape's office, she turned to a stone gargoyle that had been standing there and kicked it.

"I'm guessing detention with Professor Snape didn't go very well, did it?" said a voice, making Serena jump and turn around.

She smiled as she saw that it was only Lupin. "No," she said, restraining herself from saying the things that were floating across her mind. "That whole detention thing was stupid, anyway. Making me clean out all the cauldrons just because I helped Neville a little in class. Would it hurt S... Professor Snape to notice that poor Neville is frightened to death of him?"

Lupin smiled a little bit and lowered his voice. "I don't think that's in Professor Snape's nature," he said.

Serena laughed. "Maybe not," she said. Then she got serious. "But, I've got enough on my plate without him giving out detentions to his own demented pleasure."

They started walking towards Gryffindor Tower. "Professor, can I ask you something?" asked Serena, looking at the walls with the pictures on them. The people were snoozing in their frames.

"Certainly," replied Lupin.

Serena looked at him. "I have this... problem. It's not really a problem so much as it is a duty."

"Go on," said Lupin.

Serena sighed. "Well, it's been getting in the way of school a lot lately and I'm concerned about my school performance. I've been so busy with this... duty that I have barely any time with school. I mean, I barely even made it to Potions today, and I got lucky because I had a note from Professor Dumbledore. What do you think I should do?"

Lupin considered this for a moment. "That's a hard one," he said. "How long have you had this... duty?"

"I've only just found out about it maybe a week ago," replied Serena.

Lupin frowned. "I'm not exactly sure," he said. "I'll have to think about this. By next class I'll have a solution for you."

"Thanks, Professor." said Serena. "I knew I could count on you."

He watched her walk away shaking his head. "If she's worried about homework, you know there's something wrong."

"Yes, I agree." replied Professor Dumbledore, standing beside Lupin. "But, if she is anything like her father was at school, she shouldn't be too worried about it."

"You're right," sighed Lupin.

The next couple of weeks were crazy around Hogwarts for Serena. Between battling monsters and doing homework, she hardly had any time to do much else.

True to her word, however, she never went to Hogsmeade and stayed in the castle with Harry, so he wouldn't be lonely. She blamed it on the homework overload, but that wasn't the reason entirely.

There was two of two reasons she decided to stay at the castle. Numero Uno being that she promised Harry that she would stay.

Number Two is that she wanted time to think about things, go through her pictures, take time to recollect her thoughts.

The hard thing about all of that is that Luna wanted to train Serena every spare minute that she got, which was interfering madly with the huge pile of homework that was on Serena's bed.

"You've gotta punch harder than that!" said Luna, watching the young girl practicing her hand-to-hand combat on a scarecrow. "You've gotta be able to knock the darn thing down."

Serena wiped the sweat off of her brow as she threw another jab at the stick that just WASN'T falling over. "I'm trying!" she snapped at Luna. "I'm not even supposed to be doing this until I'm fourteen. If you haven't noticed, that's next year!"

"Well, it's a good thing you're getting your training in now, so you'll have nobody to blame when you mess up in the future." snapped Luna.

"So you automatically expect me to mess up in the future!" said Serena, balling her fist and hitting the scarecrow so hard in the face that it fell over. "I can't believe you!"

"Oh, well then, huh?" said Luna. "I don't expect you'll ever be as good as the other Scouts."

Serena stopped and looked at Luna with her brows furrowed. "There's more?" she asked.

Luna's eyes widened. "Not at the moment," she covered real quickly.

Serena ran up the stairs into her dormitory. It was now nine o'clock in the night and she was already exhausted, and she STILL needed to do her homework.

She had just finished with an essay from Snape when Hermione and Ron walked into the common room. They were beaming and looked as if they had had the time of their lives at Hogsmeade.

"Hi, guys," said Hermione slightly out of breath.

Serena simply smiled her way, and then started on an essay from Trelawny. That essey was the easiest one that she had to do all night.

After she was finished, she leaned back in the chair she was sitting in. "If I have to do that much homework every night, I want you guys to dig me a grave and throw me in it. I'm exhausted!"

Hermione smiled. "I don't think so," she said. "If you need help, you know, you CAN ask."

Serena looked at Hermione and smiled. "Thanks," then she looked around. "You know what, I haven't seen much of my siblings lately."

"They're around," replied Hermione, frowning. She didn't want to tell Serena that she had seen them talking with Malfoy earlier in the day.

"Hmm," said Serena thoughtfully. "I wonder why they don't come say hi any more."

Ron looked at her, biting his lip. He too had seen them talking to Malfoy. Even HE had enough tact not to say anything in front of her. "Their probably just busy. I mean, isn't Josh in O.W.L year?"

Serena nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, he sure is." she said.

"And Mina's a teenage girl," stated Hermione. "She's not supposed to pay attention to her younger sibling."

Serena nodded, feeling better about her siblings absence. But, down deep she knew that SOMETHING was going on with them. And she was most likely going to find out.

Okay, end of Chapter. R&R, if you want. If not, I'm glad you're reading. 


	10. Something Kinda Fishy's going on

You just never know how addicting computer games are until you've tried them... I'm totally addicted to the Sims 2: University... Man, I love The Sims. Unfortunately, my Sim is married to a Romance Sim. For all of those who've played The Sims, you know what a pain in the butt that is. :D And another thing, you know you're obsessed when you make Harry's family of Sims... :D And I'm on to make Sirius and Remus! Muhahaha!

A New Dawn,  
Chapter Ten,  
"Something kinda fishy's going on,"

"Hey, Mina, wait up!" panted Serena, trying to catch up with her sister.

Mina stopped and turned and smiled. "Hey, Sere. How are you doing?" she said, waiting for her sister to catch up with her.

"I haven't seen you and Josh around lately and wondered if you had forgotten about me," said Serena, grinning.

Mina smiled and rolled her eyes. "We've been very busy," she said. The two started walking again. "As have you, I see. Patrolling the grounds at night, doing homework, flirting with Harry and Ron. What don't you do?"

Serena laughed. "I didn't know it was that obvious," she said, blushing a bit. Then she smirked. "Do you have your eye on anybody?"

Mina shook her head. "Not really," she said. "But then, you know me. I don't want any kind of relationship until I'm out of school. Wanna get a good career first."

Serena looked at her thoughtfully for a minute. "That's a good idea," she said. "I wonder what Josh wants to do as a career. I haven't really talked to him that much about it."

Mina shrugged her shoulders. "To tell the truth, I haven't asked him either." she said.

"So, this is my stop." said Serena, standing in front of Lupin's classroom.

Mina nodded. "Okay," then she said. "We should find Josh later and have a nice gab session."

Serena nodded. "Sounds good to me. Talk to ya later." she said, then entered the classroom.

"Did she notice anything?"

Mina turned to Josh and shook her head. "She's too naive to notice anything that's been going on, thank goodness. Otherwise we'd be in big trouble."

Josh nodded. "That we would," he said. Then. "We'd better get going."

The two walked down the halls to the entrance hall and went out the oak front doors and were soon gone.

Serena walked out of the class room with Harry and Ron in tow. Hermione needed to "dash back to the library for a minute to do some last minute cramming."

Ron shook his head. "That girl is always doing something,"

"Yeah," replied Serena, nodding. "At least she stays out of trouble. The busier you are the better, I say."

Harry shook his head. "But that's over-kill, don't you think?" he asked.

Serena nodded. "I definitely think she's bitten off more than she can chew this year, that's for sure. She's wearing herself down." she replied.

Ron looked at Serena. "Where did all this insight come from all of a sudden? I thought you and Hermione were at each other's throats after the whole...well, you know, common room incident."

"Ron, you haven't been around much lately, have you?" asked Serena, rolling her eyes. "We apologized and got over it; it's not like we're three year olds any more. Some people just prize friendship more than petty arguments and such."

Harry and Ron looked at each other with a raised eye brow. "Where did this sudden well of knowledge come from?" asked Harry, frowning.

"I've been watching Hermione for a long time," said Serena, sitting down in the common room that they had just reached. "She's a very interesting person to watch sometimes; I just wonder what makes those wheels in her head spin fifty miles per hour. I wish I had that much energy."

"Don't we all?" muttered Ron. Then he looked up at her. "You've been pretty darn busy around here as well; I don't suppose you feel like telling us what's going on with you."

Serena shook her head. She was just glad that when that monster attacked, Harry lost the memory of seeing her as her Sailor Scout self... if only it had taken the fight they had away from him, too. That was always at the back of his mind, she could tell. He still didn't fully trust her, and that hurt, although she could understand why. "No, Ron," she said, smiling. "I can't, I keep telling you. I would if I could-"

"But you can't, so you won't." finished Ron lamely. "I just wish there was something that we could do to help the load of work you have to do."

Serena shook her head. "There is nothing you can do for me that you're not already doing Ron." she said, putting her hand on his shoulder. At times like these she felt much more mature than she should be. "But perhaps you could lay of Hermione and Crookshanks for a bit; I know you don't like him, but leave Hermione alone about it, will ya? She loves that cat. It's the first real pet that she's ever really had."

Ron's shoulders slumped and he looked down at the ground. "I'm sorry," he muttered.

"I'm not the one who needs the apology, Ron." said Serena, smiling. "But thank you for your thoughtfulness. I know how hard it is when you're pet is being chased around the castle all the time. I myself have to do that to my own cat sometimes."

Harry laughed. "You mean that cat with the moon on it's forehead?" he asked.

Serena looked up at him sharply. "That's exactly the one I mean," she said, laughing. "Don't see many of those around, do you?"

Ron looked up. "I saw one just the other day," he said. "It was white with a moon on it's forehead. It was being carried by a very pretty girl," he finished, blushing.

Serena's eyes furrowed for a minute, then she shook her head. "That's interesting," she said. "since I think Hogwarts is full of those."

They all laughed for a minute, then got to doing their homework that was already over-due.

"Serena?" said Hermione from her bed. She couldn't sleep; something had been bothering her for the longest amount of time.

Serena stirred in her bed and sat up and rubbed her eyes. She yawned and stretched. "Yes, Herms?" she replied in between a huge yawn.

Hermione got up and sat at the foot of her bed. "Something's been bothering me lately; I wonder if you could tell me the story of how the Sailor Scouts came to be."

Serena shook her head. "I don't know if I can get all of the facts to you; mind you, you're not even supposed to know about me. If Luna found out that you knew, she'd blow a gasket. She's not even okay that I'm choosing to do my homework instead of training every minute of my spare time."

Hermione smiled a half smile. "I'm not worried about the facts, Sere. I'm just curious about how they came to be, what the history behind them is."

"There's typical Hermione for you; always wanting to know the facts." said Serena, laughing. Then she got serious. "Most of this I learned as bed time stories my mother told me while I was growing up.

"There was this queen, Queen Serenity was her name; she was beautiful and a wise ruler of her kingdom. Her people loved her; she was a just and wise queen and fair to everybody that crossed her path.

"She had two sisters; both older. They thrived in the palace for their childhood and teenage years. Then, one by one they were married off to men of their mother's choice, each having had a mate chosen from the time of birth.

"The oldest one, Charity, after she had married, moved away; she had one beautiful daughter, whose origin is unknown. But she was said to have immense beauty and poses the power of love, to manipulate all those around her she felt should be in love.

"The middle one, whose name is unknown also, moved away into a far desert land to be queen of a most beautiful and dark castle; her subjects didn't have any objections to her or her husband, who happened to be one of the most handsome. They had one daughter who is said to have a fiery temper when spoken harshly to.

"Then comes the last one, and the fairest one, Serenity. She remained with her mother, who was ill of health and cared for her until her passing. She was only able to have one child and had a hard time carrying her; however, she managed and carried on in a cheerful manner, never letting the thought of not being able to have more children get to her. Besides, this one was a handful in itself."

When Serena paused to take a breath, Hermione looked at her and asked her. "So, what happened next?"

Serena smiled. "I'm getting to that, Herms." she said. Then she got serious again. "The three sisters and their daugthers thrived in peace and happiness for a long time. Then, unbeknownst to them, an evil force was rising against them, trying to overthrow the peace and tranquility they had been enjoying for many a season.

"Realizing that their daughters would need protectors, because of their royal lineage, they called upon four warriors to take the challenge of protecting them. Now, be mindful that the time had well passed and that the daughters of the three sisters were grown and were able to take on kingdoms themselves. The four protectors acted as ladies in waiting, so as to keep themselves hidden from the princesses, because nobody was to know of their duty or loyalty to the royal family.

"In this time of desperation, two of the sisters separated themselves from the other, so they were three separate kingdoms rather than just one... Yes, Hermione?"

Hermione looked at her. "So about what age were the three sisters getting to be, if their daughters were grown? And what age were their daughters?"

Serena thought about this for a moment. "The oldest sister was just inches from death; she had caught the same illness that her mother had; the second oldest sister died while giving birth to a boy; the third I'm not exactly sure what happened to. Mom wouldn't share all the details of the story to me, as I was so young and could not handle it. I think that she died in an attempt to protect her kingdom.

"As for the children; they were all about the same age, about twenty something, old enough to take over the kingdoms for their mothers, who, by the time the war was over had all passed away."

"So the children took over for their mothers?" asked Hermione.

Serena nodded. "All except for the male, who had enlisted in the army as soon as he was old enough."

"Now, what about the protectors, what did they do and where were they from?" asked Hermione, her breath short with eagerness.

"Well," stated Serena. "The job of the protectors were a lot like undercover detectives, or Auors in the wizarding world. They were to protect the princesses without being noticed. Now, they weren't supposed to marry and to have families, but by the time they were called to their duties as the protectors, they had been happily married and were each with child, one child."

"And thus the Sailor Scouts were born, right?" asked Hermione, grinning from ear to ear.

(AN: For all of those that are confused about this, let me explain something really quickly. I hope it doesn't give anything away, but I'm kinda confused myself, as it is really late and I'm sooo tired. Anyway, the ones, Charity, the one whose name is unknown and Serenity are the original queens and their daughters are the mothers of the Scouts. Make sense? I hope so.)

Serena nodded. "Yes, each queen brought forth one child, a girl, save one. One brought forth two girls in succession (AN: I'll give points to those who know who this is! )."

Hermione sat back. "I want you to tell me of what the Scouts do later, but now you're tired and I'll let you get some sleep. 'Night, Sere. Thanks a bunch."

Serena nodded. "You're welcome, Herms, I hope I didn't confuse you too bad. Like I said, I'm new to this whole thing myself. I'm not sure if I got everything right."

Hermione smiled and went back to her bed, laid down and her snores filled the room finally.

Serena laid her head back down and was out within ten minutes of tossing and turning to find the right position to sleep in.

Getting up for classes the next day was not an easy thing for Serena to do. Her dreams had been haunted by mysterious places and people for most of the night and she hardly got any sleep.

She pulled herself out of bed and went to her trunk to get out her clothing. She looked over to her clock and realized that she was up an hour earlier than she needed to be. Scolding herself, she looked around to Hermione's bed. Maybe she could finish telling her about the Scouts this morning for a bit before classes.

She was startled as she realized that Hermione was not in her bed, nor was anywhere to be seen. Serena jumped up and walked down to the common room, careful to not wake anybody else that was still sleeping.

When she got down there, nobody in the common room seemed to notice her presence. She was slightly surprised to see that Mina and Josh were sitting there, talking to Hermione about something that seemed to be important. Serena sat down on the stairs so as not to be seen and listened in carefully.

"...did you manage to get anything from her besides useless historical facts?" Mina was saying.

Hermione shook her head. "No, but I did learn something interesting. I didn't know one of them had a male child; I thought they were all destined to have girls."

"That's interesting, isn't it, Josh?" asked Mina, looking at her brother.

"Unfortunately I already knew this," said Josh, shaking his head. "Mother told me."

Mina looked back at Hermione. "So, she didn't tell you about the Outer Planetary Scouts, then, did she?" she asked.

Hermione shook her head. "I don't think so. She was just getting into the story of the Scouts when I decided that I had asked too many questions; I didn't want to look suspicious." she said.

Serena cocked an eye brow. 'Suspicious?' she thought, hiding more in the shadows. 'Not more suspicious than you look now.'

"She wouldn't have caught what you were doing for us, Hermione." said Josh, grinning. "While she excels academically, she isn't the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to 'outside' negotiations. Besides, she hasn't had time to think anything of us, she's been too preoccupied with 'Sailor Scout' training and late night visits with her father."

Hermione looked up, startled. "What? She hasn't been visiting with Black, has she?" she asked sharply.

"Hermione," said Mina, putting her hand on her shoulder. "There is lots that you need to know about our little sister, lots that we can tell you, but you have to trust us. Do you?"

Hermione was hesitant, but then nodded eagerly. "Yes, I do trust you guys; now, tell me, what's going on with her?"

The three walked out of the common room, leaving Serena alone with her thoughts, which wasn't such a good thing at the moment. She felt sick that she had told Hermione all that stuff last night, even if they all knew it. Luna was right; these stories were to be kept secret until a later time when all the Sailor Scouts were reunited and could be protected. As of yet it was just Serena, and she felt terrible for having told all these stories to Hermione.

"Well, that was interesting, wasn't it?" asked a voice coming from the shadows, making Serena jump. Then she turned to see the small purple feline with the moon.

Serena bit her lip to keep it from trembling. "Luna, I am so, so sorry. I hadn't known that was going to happen, I didn't think Hermione... I didn't think that they were..." she had tears streaming down her face by this time. "I didn't think they would try to betray me like that, and take away all of my friends doing so."

Luna was about to chew the young blond out, but something inside of her made her stop. Here was this thirteen year old girl going through one of the toughest times probably in her life what with just finding out that her father was a convicted murder, and that her siblings just took one of her friends away, and that her friend basically betrayed her trust in her. "It's okay, Serena. Don't cry." said the feline, hopping onto the step Serena was sitting on. "It's really not your fault. I had a feeling that something like this would happen. I guess it's a good thing those stories I told you weren't accurate, isn't it?"

Serena looked at her. "They were fake?" she asked, wiping her eyes.

"Not entirely, but yes, for the most part, they were fake." replied Luna, a gleam in her eyes. "And if they're going to lie to your friend about you, why not fill them up with all the false information you can? I've got lots more stories for you to give to Hermione, since she's acting as a 'spy'. They're all not credible and have nothing but fictious merit, but it will get the job done all the same."

Serena smiled and petted Luna behind the ears. "Thanks, Luna. Now I can worry more about my training."

Okay, done with Chapter Ten... I hope ya'll enjoyed this one. I know it got kind of confusing, but as Luna said, it wasn't an entirely true story, so of COURSE it would be confusing. I just had a bad, bad case of writer's block with this one and got most of this out late last night, so R&R, it would make my day. 


	11. Unexpected Surprises

You just never know how addicting computer games are until you've tried them... I'm totally addicted to the Sims 2: University... Man, I love The Sims. Unfortunately, my Sim is married to a Romance Sim. For all of those who've played The Sims, you know what a pain in the butt that is. :D And another thing, you know you're obsessed when you make Harry's family of Sims... :D And I'm on to make Sirius and Remus! Muhahaha!

A New Dawn,  
Chapter Eleven,  
Unexpected Surprises

Serena punched as hard as she could against the punching bag that she had somehow managed to conjure. 

She had been outside in the early morning hours, about 5:30 continuing her training that Luna had been so anxious that she start up again.

"Harder this time, you've almost got it!" said Luna, in what she hoped was a motivational tone. These passed few weeks that she had Serena as a Scout-in-training, they had bonded quite well, and Luna had high hopes for her yet, although there were still a few things that Serena needed to work on.

With a huge blow to the punching bag, Serena managed to knock the thing down this time. She jumped up and down in victory, then did a little victory dance to go with it.

"Very good," said Luna, smiling at the young blond's enthusiasm. "Should we turn in so you can get yourself showered and cleaned up?"

"No, I think I want to take another jog around the grounds," said Serena, smiling. "I want to burn off a little bit more sugar so that I'm not hyper all day long."

Luna smiled. "Alrighty, then I'll be waiting for you in the library so that we can catch you up on some of your homework." she replied, heading towards the castle.

Serena and Luna had come up with a deal; if Serena promised to train every week-end and keep herself in shape and stuff, Luna would help her with her school-work.

That surprised Serena, because she didn't think that Luna had that much magical knowledge, but people surprise you sometimes as she had come to learn. Turns out Luna was a well of knowledge of magical nature.

Taking a breath of fresh air, Serena looked around. There was an ulterior motive for her to be taking another jog. Truthfully she didn't think she could do as good this time 'round, but she didn't need to. She just had to make it to a certain spot.

She had over-heard her brother and her sister talking to Hermione late the night before and over-heard their plans to meet at six in the morning, so she decided to go 'meet' them. Only, she had just happened to snag Harry's Invisibility Cloak the night before, so she wasn't really 'meeting' them.

She hurried and put it on as she saw them coming down the steps and followed close behind them as they walked briskly over to their 'hiding place' right on the edge of the Forbidden Forest; they were covered by the underbrush and such, so it would have been impossible to be seen.

"So, did she tell you about the Outer Planetary Scouts yet?" asked Mina anxiously, looking at Hermione, who shook her head.

Letting out a sigh, "No," replied Hermione. "And there's either one of two things that that could mean; that she's hiding the information from me, or that she really doesn't know about them."

Serena laughed mentally at Hermione. Brilliant deductions out of one of Hogwarts smartest third years, but neither close to the truth. She listened in again.

"She has to know about them," replied Josh, shaking his head. "It would make no sense if she didn't. You can't be the leader of the Inner Planetary Scouts and NOT know about the other Scouts out there. It just doesn't work like that."

"Well," sighed Mina. "We always have all of the Summer to ask her about it; it's just too bad it's coming up so quick."

Josh looked around for a minute, then pulled out a certain map.

Serena gasped. If they unfolded that, they would know that she was there! There was nothing that she could do, unless she ran, but she really wanted to stay and hear what they were saying. She had no hope of them not knowing how to use it, because Hermione knew how, and she could tell them.

Shaking her head, she got up and booked it back to the castle; she didn't want to take a chance of them finding out that she was eavesdropping on them. She hid in a closet and took the Invisibility Cloak off and headed for the direction of the Great Hall. She wanted to look as if she were on her way to eat breakfast.

Just as Serena had sat herself down, Josh muttered those words that could have gotten her in loads of trouble with them. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

"Good," said Mina, taking a breath of relief. "I thought she might've been near. I could swear I heard her a few times."

Hermione froze. Maybe she had taken the Invisibility Cloak!

"We have more pressing matters than her finding out what we're doing," said Josh, looking at the map. "Black's here!"

Hermione gasped. "What are we going to do?"

"The only thing we can do," sighed Mina, although with a spark of glee in her face.

---

"Excuse me, boys." snapped Professor McGonagall pushing Ron and Harry aside. "Ms. Tuskino, I need you to come with me to the headmaster's office right away! It's serious."

The three looked at each other for a minute, then Serena got up and went up to McGonagall. "Okay, Professor." she said. "I'm ready."

The two walked up to the headmaster's office, McGonagall keeping a stony silence.

"Professor, do you mind telling me what this is about?" asked Serena. "Because I really don't have the-"

McGonagall twitched a bit. "Ms. Tuskino, I would prefer it if you spoke to the headmaster about this, not myself."

They reached the stone gargoyles and McGonagall gave the password. They sprang apart, giving them entrance to the headmaster's office.

Serena got a little nervous when she got on the stairs going up. She wondered what on earth this could be about. Had she not done some homework and needed to have a 'talking to'? She couldn't remember doing something that was so bad she had to be brought up to the headmasters office.

She entered, still in her train of thought. She noticed with a sharp pain that Professor Dumbledore was not alone; Lupin and Snape were also present.

"Ms. Tuskino, have a seat." said Professor Dumbledore standing up and bidding her to take the chair in front of his desk.

As she did so, she could feel a lump jump into her throat and found it extremely hard to speak. Trying to gain control of herself, she managed to ask. "Professor, what's going on? What's happened?" then she got worried. "Has anything happened to any of my family? My mom, how's my mom?"

Professor Dumbledore smiled a small, sad smile. "Your mother is fine, as are your brother and sister." he replied.

Serena sighed with relief. Then she got uncomfortable again. "Then, what is this about? Have I done something wrong? Did I not do any of my homework? I can assure you I have reason-"

"Ms. Tuskino, you have no problem on your homework. I do have reason to believe that you have indeed done something wrong." replied the headmaster. He hated this; he did not know if his accusation was true, but if it was he needed to get it taken care of. "I have reason to believe that you have been helping Sirius Black get into the castle."

Serena looked at him with a mouth dropped and a shocked expression. "No, no, Professor, I would never." she replied. "I would never... You have asked me not to associate with him, I have done as you asked. I would never help him into the castle."

"Even if you believed him that he was not guilty?" asked Dumbledore softly. "As you told me you did when we last met?"

Serena's eyes stung with tears. "Professor, I would never... I could never... You asked me not to, I haven't. I really, really haven't, that's the honest to goodness truth. I promise you. I wouldn't let him in! He's trying to get to my best friend!" she took a breath. "I promise you, Professor, I haven't done anything like that."

Dumbledore looked down, then at McGonagall, who came forward. "But the fact still stands, Tuskino, that you are rather suspicious right now, and we cannot have suspicions flying around as they have. I have no choice but to suspend you until the authorities can catch Black and put him back where he belongs."

Serena sat there for a minute. She did not know what to do. She had never been placed in this situation before. She... She took a deep breath, because she felt that if she didn't her insides would burst. What would her mother think? What would her mother do?

Taking a deep breath, she nodded. "Okay," she said, trying to smile. "Okay, I guess that's fair." then she nodded. "Of course that's fair!"

Just then a tiny purple presence came into the room. "Professor, could I interrupt for a minute?"

"Certainly, Luna." replied Dumbledore.

Luna jumped up on Dumbledore's desk. "Albus, Serena can't've done everything that you accused her of just a minute ago," she said. "because she has been training with me the whole time."

Dumbledore sighed. "Luna, I want you to accompany Serena to get her stuff together," he replied.

Luna glared at Dumbledore as she walked out of the room with a heartbroken thirteen year old Serena trailing behind her. "You bust your but for them all year long and then they treat you like this? What the heck was he thinking and why in the heck was Snape in there? It's not as if Dumbledore needed his moral support or anything. I think Snape just wanted to gloat."

Serena shook her head. "Well, now he can gloat all he wants," she said glumly. "I just wish that I would have presented myself better than I had back there; then maybe it would have counted for something."

Luna shook her head. "I don't think so," she replied. "Besides, you did fine. You tried to assure them that you were innocent, but they were too hardheaded to believe you."

Serena thought about it all the way to the common room. She got out some paper and wrote a little note to Harry and Ron explaining to them a bit of what happened; she also left one for Hermione, because Serena figured she may want to know.

Taking one last look around the common room, Serena sighed. She was going to miss this. She didn't know exactly how long it would be until she saw Hogwarts again; possibly never.

It was funny to her that all the students were not in the school building as all of this was happening. She couldn't help but feel a stab of bitterness towards those who told Dumbledore such falsehoods and lies. If it weren't for them, she wouldn't be suspended.

Before she closed her trunk Luna told her to wait. She jumped in there and grabbed a book out of the trunk and put it on Hermione's bed and then told Serena to carry on as she had been before.

When asked about the book, Luna simply smiled and told her that it was nothing, just a little going away gift for Hermione from them.

Serena got out of the common room to see that none other than Professor Snape was standing there, waiting for her.

"Professor, what on earth are you doing here?" asked Serena rather dully. The one good thing about this suspension thing is that she didn't have to endure looking at Snape's greasy locks again for awhile.

Snape sneered at her. "Believe me Black, I would much rather be spending my leisure time leisurely rather than escorting you to the Hogwarts Express."

Serena thought about this for a minute. "Then why did you come? Why didn't one of the other teachers come?" she asked, coldly. "Did you think that it would be fun to torment me all the way to the Express?"

"Sadly I must take away fifty points for that comment, Black," sneered Snape again. Seeing her open her mouth, he cut in quickly. "While you are still in this school you are not fully suspended and it is perfectly fair to take away points from your house."

"When have you ever been fair, Severus?" asked Luna from somewhere at Snape's feet.

Snape rolled his eyes. "It is a great day to be getting rid of you, Luna. Too great of a day indeed." he snarled. Then, to Serena. "Come along, we have to get you to your uncertain future ahead of you. Who knows what your mother will do to you?"

"I must admit, Black, giving your dear old man the passwords into Gryffindor Tower," said Snape, thinking about what he was going to say next. "I never would have believed you to be the type to do so."

Serena looked outraged. "I didn't! You have to believe me, Professor! I-"

"Must I?" asked Snape, sneering down at her. "I never would have believed you to put Potter in danger, either."

Serena was starting to piece things together a little bit, but was still having a hard time. She tried again to plead her innocence. "Please, Professor, you have to believe me. I didn't do it!"

"Sure you didn't," snapped Snape, getting quite impatient. "Like father like daughter, I would certainly say."

Serena thought back to a time when Luna was talking to her about her father.

Flash Back:

Luna jumped on Serena's bed and peeked to see what Serena was looking at. She smiled when she saw that it was school pictures of her mom and dad.

"Your dad was sure bright when he was at school," commented Luna, smiling at the memories.

Serena looked at her. "How did you know my dad?" she asked.

"Did your mother not tell you?" asked Luna, giving her a quizzical look. When she noticed Serena's blank look, Luna continued. "I was the one who taught your mother everything she knows about the Moon Kingdom and the Sailor Scouts."

"You mean..." Serena trailed off, a look of awe gracing her face. "My mother was a Sailor Scout?"

Luna nodded. "Your father must have passed down some of his traits to you; all the other people I would have told that to would never have figured that out."

Serena grinned. "Well, I won't lie when I tell you some of my teachers call me the brightest student in their class." then her face fell. "But, then again I don't have hardly any classes that Hermione has. In them, she's the brightest student."

Luna laid down at the foot of the bed. "It's because they're scared to call you smart or give you too high of grades because they are afraid of what you would do with the knowledge after you graduate. Would you turn out like your father, supposed to be evil and treacherous? Or would you simply outshine Miss Hermione Granger, because heaven forbid if that would happen." then the cat got serious. "I'm proud of you, Serena."

Serena looked confused. "For what, Luna. I've accomplished hardly anything in training and I-"

"For using your brains as the tool to guide you. Your brains and heart are the key to being a great Sailor Scout and you're on that road and you're not even officially a Sailor Scout yet. You've accomplished more than you know, and I am proud of you for that, as would your father be if he could be here."

"Thank you, Luna, for everything." said Serena, turning out the light and going to bed.

End of Flash Back

Serena thought of all the things Snape said. Then it clicked. He would never have believed her capable of doing those things that Dumbledore said! But, that must mean- "Professor, do you think somebody wants me out of this school?" she asked, turning to him in the entrance hall, leading to the huge oak doors.

Snape turned to her and looked at her for a minute, his cold black eyes sparkling. "What would make you say such ridiculous things, Black?" he asked her, while nodding his head only slightly.

"Well, what do you think I should do?" asked Serena, rather urgently. She knew she couldn't leave school. It was too dangerous. "I mean-"

"I think you should get as far away from the castle as you possibly can," replied Snape coldly. "You certainly are so like your father; arrogant, always jumping to conclusions. It would have been the best day of my life if he would have left this school permanently. Instead, he was always running off with his friends in that stupid forest..."

That was all Serena heard as she took her wand out of her trunk, said a quick "Thank you, Professor, I owe you big time." and hightailed it in the direction of the forest.

Luna looked up at Snape. "Wow, Severus, that's the first humane thing I've ever seen you do." she said.

Snape didn't say anything, just watched as the young girl made it into the woods and then turned, his robes billowing, as always. He couldn't help but hope that she makes it into and out of the forest okay.

Alrighty then... Hope ya'll liked this chapter. I really, really liked how this one turned out. By the way, to get a few things cleared up... From now on, shorter chapters, quicker updates. I hate to do that, but it's the only way I can get out all of my other stories and keep up. So, stay tuned, though. The last chapters of this one are going to be the longest, I think. So, R&R, and sorry about the shorter chapters:D 


	12. Chapter 12

You just never know how addicting computer games are until you've tried them... I'm totally addicted to the Sims 2: University... Man, I love The Sims. Unfortunately, my Sim is married to a Romance Sim. For all of those who've played The Sims, you know what a pain in the butt that is. :D And another thing, you know you're obsessed when you make Harry's family of Sims... :D And I'm on to make Sirius and Remus! Muhahaha!

A New Dawn,  
Chapter Twelve,  
The Moon kingdom, The Cat and the WHAT? Oh, and the big dog thing, too.

Serena ran into the forest as fast as her legs could carry her. She sure did owe Snape a lot for giving out hints and such. She was still slightly surprised that he told her as much as he did; but then, sometimes people surprise you. She doubted whether he would be that nice to her again, but she would take what she could get.

Diving into the trees before anybody could see her, Serena sat down amongst some bushes to blend in with. She watched the student's activities and wished slightly to be a part of all of them. Nevertheless, she knew what she needed to do and she stuck with it, even if it meant staying in the Forbidden Forest for a few measly hours.

Serena sat and thought about what her brother and sister were up to. Why in the heck would they want to know about the Outer Planetary Scouts, anyway? What was so interesting about them?...although Serena kind of knew the answer to that. She enjoyed hearing about the Outer Scouts a lot, as she felt she could relate to them sometimes. Especially now, she thought, laughing to herself. They were outcasts, and now, so was she.

Serena remembered a story that Luna told her. When asked if it were true, Luna simply smiled and told her to figure it out on her own.

The story goes like this. Queen Serenity ordered guards for her daughter, the Princess, the future Queen of the Moon Kingdom. The surrounding planets were only too happy to oblige and sent her their best warriors, which also happened to be their Princesses as well. There were four inner planetary soldiers that came to the call and four outer planetary soldiers that also pledged their allegiance to the Queen and the young Princess.

The Queen wasn't very sure of the Outers antics, but was pleased with them for joining such a noble cause in protecting her daughter.

The Queen was trying to negotiate with the Outer System for the longest time, trying to come up with compromises that would bring them closer to the Inner System and thus have a joining of Kingdoms. The Outer System, however, did now want that joining to take place because it sounded to them much more like a dictatorship than a democracy, and they were very much for having their rights and their freedom. Although they trusted the Queen and her leadership abilities and they thought her to be kind and loving, they politely turned down the offer, and so they were not a joined Kingdom as the Inner System was.

And so it pleased Serenity to know that they would answer her call to help; but the Queen did not trust them, as she would have if they had joined with her and her Inner System.

So from then on out there was an umcomfortable feeling between the four Outer soldiers and the four Inner soldiers; the Inners didn't trust the Outers, and made it quite clear to them that they thought they were better than the Outers because they had joined Kingdoms and had gained the Queen's trust, while the Outers had not.

The Outers knew the truth, though. They knew that if they left the guard it would fall apart; besides, they hadn't come to make friends, they came to protect the Princess, who, at that time, was too young to protect herself.

Through the years that the Outers were there, the young Princess had found a place in their hearts and she was the reason they stayed so long; they shared a bond that seemed unbreakable that the time.

But, several things happened at that time that made the Queen suspicious of them. The Outers were caught right in the middle of a scandal and there were sore accusations towards them. The Queen accused them of treachery, treason and telling secrets of the Queen's Court to the other side, which they did not do.

The Outers were sore angry because of their faithful service to the Queen and her daughter after all those years and, though it broke their hearts to think about, they decided to leave the Moon Kingdom and the young Princess behind and go their own separate ways.

Leaving the Princess was one of the hardest things the group had to deal with; the fair Neptune had grown so attached to young Serenity that it broke her heart to even think about leaving; the mysterious Pluto was also in that same category, the young Princess snagging a special place in the Time Guardian's heart; the tom-boyish Uranus even was attached to the little runt, whom had been coined 'kitten' from the time she had met the princess, and she loved teaching her how to play and enjoy many of the sports that the Queen would call "for the men.". But most of all, the Scout of Death, Saturn loved that little girl more than her own life, wishing that she were her older sister to watch over and to protect. They had done everything together and now, to be leaving, broke Saturn's heart.

And so, with a tearful good-bye to the Princess and an all to bitter good-bye to the Inner System, the four took up their stuff and went their own separate ways, not even conversing with each other after that.

A few months after they left, they heard of the war that had broke out between the Lunarians and the Inner System. Only a few remained loyal, those of the Inner System Soldiers had, whereas their mother's had decided that it was indeed too much like a dictatorship and they broke out in open rebellion.

After they heard of the massacre that had gone on at the Moon-Kingdom Palace, they decided it would be best if they wiped their own memories clean and started a new life on earth, where they were sure to meet up with the Princess again one day, and enjoy the friendship they had with her.

As Serena thought about it, she watched the sky slowly turn from beautiful brilliant blue to a darker, more mysterious blue with little stars poking in and out here and there. She looked at the moon and thought that she could see it smiling at her. She smiled back, fully appreciating the light that it was giving out.

Serena felt something was going wrong and ran over to Hagrid's cabin. She noticed Buckbeak tethered to a post and lying there, looking so upset and so depressed.

Her heart sank. She remembered what had gone on during her little visit with the Professors today. When her and Snape were coming out, she saw Hagrid carrying Malfoy in after Buckbeak had attacked him.

It occurred to her with perfect clarity- they were going to kill Buckbeak!

Eyes filling with tears she stumbled away. She couldn't take the thought of such an animal being killed because of some foolish adolescent.

Looking up on the hill, Serena could see Ron, Harry and Hermione gathered together to watch the horrible sight. She wished that she could have been up there with them, but she couldn't.

Now she knew how her father felt, being innocent, yet not being able to be around friends or family, being exiled because somebody sold you off to somebody rather larger with more power.

Serena went as far as she possibly could away from Buckbeak. She didn't want to hear it; she couldn't hear it. Tears spilling out of her eyes now, she realized something. Harry, Ron and Hermione were running towards the Whomping Willow. What on earth were they doing?

Then Serena heard Ron's frantic voice calling out to his rat. "Scabbers, come back here Scabbers!"

A minute after trailing behind them, Serena stood stock still as she saw the gigantic dog she had seen so many times before. She couldn't help it, she shouted out to them. "Watch out, guys!"

The big dog threw a glance at her, then continued to growl menacingly at the three. Then, without a warning he pounced on Ron, knocking the kid over.

"Ron!" screamed Serena as she hurried forward to try to help. To no avail, however, as the dog simply pulled Ron along as if he were a rag doll.

Harry and Serena ran after him, but were stopped abruptly by the massive branches of the Whomping Willow. Harry's forehead got cut and Serena's cheek got cut.

Two other people came to stand by Hermione as they watched as Harry and Serena stood, trying to figure out how to deal with the tree.

"Too bad," muttered Josh, shaking his head. "I thought for sure our plan had worked."

Mina went walking right forward, so intent on either yelling at her sister, or hurting her, which she was sorely tempted to do, when Serena ducked as a branch came swinging at her. Mina didn't notice it and was hit full force by the branch. It knocked her back a few feet and she staggered into Hermione and Josh, knocking them all down.

"Imobilious!" shouted Serena, pointing her wand at the tree, making it quit moving all together. Then she turned to Harry and grabbed his hand. "Come on, Harry. We've gotta hurry!"

As soon as they were down in the grassy slope, the tree started moving again, blocking the three outsiders so they couldn't get in.

When they got out of the grassy slope and tunnel they looked around. "This place looks like it hasn't been occupied for years," muttered Serena.

Harry looked around at all the torn cushions and ripped off chair legs. "I don't think it was meant to be occupied," he replied. "I think this is the Shrieking Shack."

Serena turned to look at him sharply when they both heard a noise from above. "Ron," said Serena, and the two of them hurried up the stairs.

They found him on a rather old bed, with faded bedding, holding his leg in pain from where it had snapped when he was trying to keep himself from getting dragged into the Shrieking Shack in the first place.

They both ran over to him. "Ron, Ron are you alright?" asked Serena, kneeling at his side in an instant. She was looking around for something that might help ease Ron's pain.

"Where's the dog?" asked Harry, urgently as he looked around and could see no sign of the huge dog at all.

Ron, pale white and shaking, pointed to the door. "Harry, it's a trap. He's no dog, he's an Animagus."

And, from behind the door came the form of the infamous murderer, betrayer of his parents, the person who was supposed to be after him, Sirius Black.

Heehee, okay, I love giving you guys cliffies. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I know it's not much, and it may be a little confusing... I don't know, tell me what you think. R&R, it would really, really make my day. 


	13. Betrayer or Betrayed?

Ah, yes, sadly, I have finished the new Harry Potter book. It was quite sad, although I couldn't put it down. When I got to the part I started sobbing. Thank goodness it was just me in the room, other people might've been a bit disturbed. So sad, but really good too.

A New Dawn

Chapter Thirteen,  
Betrayer, or Betrayed?

Serena froze to where she was kneeling at Ron's side. She stared at the man before her with wide eyes. He looked different from the last time she had seen him; the way he looked, the crazed way he was looking at Harry.

Harry stood rooted to the spot. He looked from where Black was standing, to where Serena was kneeling. She too seemed shock, but then his anger flared and he didn't give account to the fact that she was just as shocked or angry that Black was there as he, Harry, was.

Ron tried to get up, but Serena pushed him back on the bed. "Stay down, Ron. You'll hurt your leg even more." she said, looking at him.

Suddenly she felt like she was an outcast. Everybody in the room was now staring at her, making her feel rather uncomfortable.

"So," hissed Harry, turning to Serena. "So, you HAVE been in on this the whole time."

Serena, who was trying to do some fast calculating, shook her head. "No," she said, her voice coming out barely above a whisper. "No, I haven't. Harry, you've got to listen to me, I had nothing to do with this!"

"Yeah, right!" snapped Harry. "You've been planning this for a long time, I can tell. Probably from the time that he," thrusting his thumb towards Black, who was looking at the scene with furrowed brows. "broke into the Gryffindor common room."

Serena, who had now started trembling shook her head again. "You're wrong, Harry." she said, softly. "I have had nothing to do with this whatsoever. You have to believe me."

Harry did not take into account that her eyes were shining with tears, that she was trembling like a scared fox, cornered in its hole, with a riffle held up to it. He did not notice anything but how he was feeling at the moment; his whole body felt like it was on fire; white-hot anger bubbled up inside of him, and he glared at Serena with a glare full of hatred that, had she not been too shocked to move, she would have fallen back a step. "I haven't got to do anything," he hissed. "I have believed you from the start, and for what? To be lied to, to be tricked? THIS MAN BETRAYED MY PARENTS!"

"Expelliarmus!" croaked Black, pointing Ron's wand at them. "Now, young Potter, I will not have you threatening my daughter with that, and I will not have Serena retaliating."

Harry and Serena turned towards him as he took a step forward. He didn't look anything like Serena remembered him looking. "I thought you'd come and help your friend." he hoarsely said. His voice sounded like he had long since used it. Looking at Harry, he smiled a crooked smile. "Like father like son. Brave of you. I half expected you to run and tell. I'm thankful. This way it'll be a lot easier."

Harry's blood boiled and he suddenly wanted to cause Black excruciating pain for what he did to his, Harry's, parents. He wanted to cause Black the pain he caused Harry's parents, the pain he, Harry, felt every time a dementor got near him. He wanted to make Black pay for those poor Muggles he killed, and poor Peter Pettigrew.

He was about to attack when two pairs of arms wrapped around his own. He looked around and saw that Ron was now standing up and holding onto his arms and then looked at Serena, who had momentarily closed her eyes and some diamond tears fell down her cheeks. When she opened them up, she looked at Black. "If you want to kill Harry, you'll have to go through us first." she said slowly, not breaking eye contact with the man standing before her.

Black digested this for a moment before looking her straight in the eye. "You believed me," he croaked again. "When I came to you, you believed me. However, if you stand by your friend, whom stated rather plainly that he wanted nothing more to do with you during his ranting and raving, other than your father, whom you know had nothing to do with said friends' parents murder, I do not hold it against you."

Serena stood in a mix of emotions, looking at the ground.

Black turned to Ron. "You should lay back down; you'll hurt that leg even more."

"Did you hear her?" asked Ron, staring at Black. "You'll have to kill all three of us!"

Black looked at Ron for a moment before answering. His eyes flickered over Harry and Serena. He smiled mentally. Just like his daughter, to stick up for somebody who had, moments before, insulted her beyond repair. "There'll only be one murder here to night," he croaked, raising an eye brow.

Harry struggled against Ron and Serena, who held on tighter. "No, Harry, stop," panted Serena, from effort of holding him.

"What's wrong, Black?" spat Harry, glaring at Black. "Being around all of those dementors made you soft? But, you didn't care last time, did you? You didn't care when it was all those Muggles, or Peter Pettigrew! It didn't matter to you then!"

"Harry!" whispered Ron, sharply. "Shut up!"

Harry struggled more at this. "HE KILLED MY PARENTS!" he shouted, breaking free of Serena and Ron's grips. Harry's blood was boiling. He hated the man before him, worse than ever before, if that were possible. In his white-hot anger, Harry had forgotten all about magic- he had forgotten that he was only a thirteen year old kid, scrawny, short, with the appearance that he had been starved, whereas Black was a full-grown man at his full height. All Harry knew for certain was that he wanted to cause Black pain- he didn't care how, he didn't KNOW how, but he wanted to make Black pay for what he did. The thought that he might get hurt just as badly, or worse penetrated his agered mind only for a moment. He didn't care. He simply did not care how much pain he got in so long as Black got what he deserved.

Serena and Ron watched in horror as Harry charged at Black. However, it seemed that Black was in shock- perhaps it was the thought of Harry doing something so stupid, but Black did not raise the wands in time- Harry's left hand gripped Black's shrunken wrist, forcing the tips of the wands away as Harry did the only thing he could think of and let his other hand collide with the side of Black's face and the two of them fell, backward, into the wall.

Serena pushed Ron back on the bed just in time for him to dodge a stray stream of sparks, just to be hit herself. "Ow, oh, hot, hot, hot!" she screamed, falling down to the ground, holding her arm where the sparks had hit. It began bleeding instantly; blood poured from her fingers as she tried to stem the flow a bit. She whimpered in pain. She had not sustained an injury this bad ever and if she was being honest with herself, she didn't like it very much.

"Sere," gasped Black.

Harry felt Black's shrunken wrist twist madly, trying to get away, but he held on fast, his other hand hitting every part of Black it could find.

But, Black's free hand found Harry's throat... "No," he hissed. "I've waited too long-"

The fingers tightened, choking Harry, his glasses being knocked askew.

"No," wailed Serena, trying to stand up, but couldn't for the pain. "Stop!"

Then Serena and Ron saw Hermione's foot swing from seemingly out of nowhere. Black let go of Harry with a grunt of pain; Ron, in immeasurable pain found the strength in him to throw himself on Black's wand hand and Harry heard it clatter to the ground.

He fought free of the jumble of bodies that now surrounded Black and saw his and Serena's wands rolling across the floor.

He dived at them, but- "Argh,"

Crookshanks had jumped in and was now clawing Harry as if there was going to be no tomorrow. Harry threw the ginger cat off of him, but Crookshanks now darted toward Harry's and Serena's wands.

Harry aimed a kick at the cat while screaming, "OH, NO YOU DON'T, YOU LOUSY CAT!"

Crookshanks leapt away, hissing and spitting, but Harry paid no mind as he snatched his and Serena's wands and turned around. "Get out of the way!" he snarled at Hermione and Ron, who decided that they didn't need telling twice as they lunged out of the way as fast as they could, Hermione snatching up her's and Ron's wand that had been forgotten in the corner.

Hermione looked frightened; her lip was bleeding and she was panting heavily. She looked horror struck at Serena, who now had blood spilling over her hand down onto the floor, tears of pain streaking her face. Hermione's own eyes stung as she realized that she, Hermione, was just like Black... she had betrayed her own friend, and now she was hurt, frightened and probably friendless at the moment.

Ron had collapsed on the four poster bed that was in there; his face was pale white except for the stream of blood that was coming from just above his eye brow. He, like Hermione was also panting heavily, holding his leg and moaning in pain.

Black was sprawled at the bottom of the wall. He was breathing rather shallowly as he watched Harry come nearer, with his wand at the ready.

Harry fell short just above Black, his wand pointing straight at Black's heart, unwavering, unflinching, prepared and ready. He was really going to do this...

"Going to kill me, Harry?" he whispered.

Harry looked down at him. His nose and lip was bleeding and a bruise was just starting to appear where Hermione had kicked him. He glared down at Black, hatred reflecting in his eyes. "You killed my parents," he said, his voice shaking slightly with the emotion of everything that had gone on, but his wand was unaffected by the shakiness of his voice. "And you just caused your daughter lots of pain. Is that all your good for, causing pain?"

Black's eyes flickered towards Serena, who was going pale from all the blood she was losing, which had now covered the better part of her robes and a good part of the floor, back up to Harry, with an almost pleading look. His eyes appeared sunk in from all those years in Azkaban. "I don't deny it," he replied very, very quietly, just above a whisper. "But, if you knew the whole story, the one Sere tried to tell you earlier..."

A furious pounding began in Harry's ears. "The whole story?" he repeated with a bitter little laugh. "The whole story? I'll tell you the whole story. You sold them to Voldemort. That's the whole story. That's all anybody in this room needs to know, and it's certainly all I need to know."

"You have got to listen to me," said Black, and in his voice rested a note of urgency. "I promise you'll regret it if you don't... You don't understand the whole thing..."

Harry voice shook more now than it ever had before. "I don't understand? I don't- I understand a whole lot better than you think I do." his eyes were starting to sting and he was getting mad at his show of emotion. "You never have to hear her, do you? My mum screaming in agony, protecting me from Voldemort, trying to bargain with him, to stop him from killing me. You NEVER have to hear that!"

Before either of them could say, or mutter another word, Serena slid herself over to where Black was sitting and stared up imploringly at Harry. "Harry," she began, rather calmly after having her arm gashed open and after all of the rotten things Harry said. Her eyes were watery too, and there were tears running down her cheeks. "Harry, I've stood by you for three years now, I've supported you and I've encouraged you, but now I can't do that. If you want to kill dad, than you're going to have to kill me, too."

Harry stared down at her and Black, the grip on his wand tightening, his wand arm shaking slightly now. He didn't care... Why should he care? If she was going to stand in the way, than so be it, he would have to deal with her, too.

"What are you doing?" Black asked Serena harshly, trying to push her out of the way, but she wouldn't budge.

She looked at him. "You were right earlier, dad. I should have believed you from the start, but I didn't." she said. Then, getting a determined look in her eyes, she stood up, Black's wand in hand, and pointed it at Harry with her good arm. "As I said before, Harry, you'll have to kill me to kill him."

Harry raised his wand even more, but next second it went flying, and hit Ron's broken leg. He yelped in agony as it went bouncing off.

Serena whipped towards the door and stood, momentarily shocked again. There were two people standing in the doorway; one female, one male. The male pointed his wand at Harry and hissed, "Stupifey!"

And, Harry was blasted into the wall. "That, I believe, young Potter, is our job." hissed the male.

"Harry!" moaned Serena, looking at the stunned figure of her best friend. Then she looked at the two, who were advancing on Black, who had just managed to pull himself into a sitting position.

One of the girls went over to the stunned Harry, nudged him with her foot, then trampled on his nose (AN: Yup, I did get this from the 6th book.), breaking it, leaving Harry unable to do anything, as he was still unconscious.

Serena cringed as blood started spurting out of Harry's nose as if it were a water fountain. Her eyes filled with hot tears as she glared at the girl that did it.

"We have been looking for Black for a very, very long time." hissed the male advancing on Serena, his wand pointed at her heart, just as Harry's had been on Black.

He was about to say a spell, undoubtably to stun her, or worse, but was unable to as Serena had drawn Ron's wand as fast as she could, pointed it at him and yelled, "Petrificus Totalus!"

And, with that, Serena's older brother, fell over with a loud THUNK.

Mina turned on Serena. "What did you do that for?" she yelled, looking at Josh's unconscious body. "We're your family, not him!"

Serena looked coldly at Mina. "You were supposed to be my sister," she said, once again barely above a whisper. "You were supposed to support me and help me through this, you said you would. I never would have believed that it was you that started spreading this about the school; I never would have believed you capable of seeing somebody suffer like that. I never would have believed you capable of destroying my life like that." 

Ron looked up and gaped. "But, I thought that it was-"

"We were both wrong, Ron." said Serena, but her eyes and Ron's wand were still on Mina. "They made it look as though Hermione had spread the rumors, and stuff, and they did a good job. Then, they made Hermione make up with me, by apologizing and telling me how sorry she was, when in reality they only wanted the dirt, so to speak, on me. She was playing spy the whole time, and I fell for it, at first. Then Luna told me what might be going on, and it was then that I deducted that they had spread the story that I was Black's daughter around the school; I just couldn't do anything to prove it because I didn't have any evidence to support my case."

Mina looked at the tip of Ron's wand, which was pointed at her unshakily and looked up at her sister. "You've been watching too many detective shows," she hissed.

Serena shook her head. "No, I haven't, I've just got brains." she replied, then, upon noticing Mina's hand grab for her wand, petrified her as well. "And how they managed all of this, you ask? By communicating with my mother through the fire place in the teachers lounge. They wanted to do it undetected, and the teachers only went there every so often, so they figured it as safe a place as any to conspire against us. They never would have figured all of this out if Mummy wasn't holding their hands and telling them in the simplest instructions how to pull it off."

Serena turned to Sirius. "Mother wanted you out of the picture so that I would momentarily forget about you and go back to the way we were living before, which begs the questions why and how? After studying it out for long periods of time I finally figured it out; I figured out that it was Peter Pettigrew who had actually done the betraying and that it was not indeed you who had betrayed Lily and James, but I had yet to figure out why my parents were still in league with Pettigrew, after all, they had been Lily and James's friends, too, hadn't they?"

Just as Black was about to speak, Serena held up her hand to stop him and went to kneel over Harry, who was no longer stunned; the spell, not being a very strong one in nature, had worn off. Then she turned to Black and handed him Ron's wand. "You can help him, right?" she asked, grimacing as she noticed all the caked blood on Harry.

"Certainly," replied Black, pushing her gently out of the way. He pointed the wand at Harry's nose and muttered some spell that Serena was sure she had never heard before. Then, noting that he was still stunned, Black did the counter-curse for the spell and then Harry was able to move again. He sat up, looking around at everybody, slightly dazed and confused.

"Wha happened?" he asked, his voice slurring slightly.

Serena giggled in spite of herself. "Well, let's see, you were stunned, Mina stepped on your nose-"

"Yeah, that I knew." interrupted Harry, his hand instinctively going up to his nose.

Serena shook her head. "Then-"

But, before another word was spoken, the door to the room burst open again and in walked Professor Lupin. "Were they meant to be stunned?" he asked quickly, pointing to Josh and Mina, who were now sitting up. Then, "Expelliarmus!"

Serena nodded. Then her wand and Harry's wand flew out of their hands. So did the two Hermione were holding. Lupin caught them without a second thought, staring at Black, who had moved away from Harry and was now sitting down against the wall again. Serena went to join him. Josh and Mina were now stunned again.

Harry stood, feeling empty. He hadn't done it. The one thing he had wanted to do, he hadn't. Black was just going to be handed back to the dementors.

Noticing his look of misery, Serena scooted away from Black, who had put his arm around her, which had now dropped, she went to Harry and pulled him down to sit by her.

Harry was lost in thought and then next thing he knew he was on the ground, sitting next to Serena, who had her arm around him and was watching Lupin intently.

Lupin was staring at Black. Then, in a tense voice, he spoke. "Where is he, Sirius?"

Okay, I know this is a rather dumb place to leave off on, but I've gotta. I've gotta figure out how I'm gonna do the rest, but rest assured it's gonna be different. Anyway, R&R and tell me what you think. I'm sorry if I confused you, by the way. It'll all make sense in the next chapter or two... And, I've got my reasons for wanting you confused... Anyway, hope you liked this chappie! 


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